The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday edition that China produces about 97 per cent of the world's rare-earth output. A Reuters dispatch to the Post says now China is again cutting its export quota sent shockwaves through the markets and boosted the shares of rare-earth producers in other countries, whose ranks include Molycorp Inc. of the United States, Rare Element Resources of Canada and Lynas Corp. of Australia. Rare-earth metals are not as rare as the name suggests. The United States once dominated global production and has a large deposit in Mountain Pass, Calif., at a mine owned by Molycorp. In the 1990s, China began flooding the market and sending prices tumbling. Between 1990 and 2006, the average price of rare-earth metals fell about 75 per cent. Production at Molycorp's mine, which was once owned by Chevron Corp., stopped in 2002, in part because of the price collapse. The U.S. Geological Survey says global supplies are plentiful. Besides Molycorp's Mountain Pass mine, other mines under development outside China include: Great Western Minerals Group in South Africa; Avalon Rare Metals in Nechalacho, Canada; Lynas in Australia; and Arafura Resources in Australia.