The Forum was organized by the Minister Counsellor of Commercial and Economic Affairs, along with other Senior Trade Commissioners and Embassy staff. It was held on June 19, 2013, as a follow up to, and building on, letters of co-operation signed between the Governments of Canada and Germany in August 2012. These letters speak to greater collaboration between Canada and Germany in the area of critical raw materials supply and technology, including the Rare Earth Elements ("REE"). The event attracted over 30 attendees from German manufacturing, consulting, financial, consulting companies and academic institutions.. Some of the more well-known companies attending included Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler, Brose and Infineon Technologies.

The Canadian delegation was led by the Deputy Minister of International Trade, Simon Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy discussed several trade-related initiatives that Canada is pursuing including Free Trade negotiations with the European Union. Mr. Kennedy specifically noted that Canada welcomed investment from countries like Germany, and that Canada's rich natural resources can serve Germany's need for new sources of supply of critical raw materials such as the REE, naming several promising Canadian REE development projects including Avalon's Nechalacho Heavy Rare Earths Project.

Dr. Peer Hoth, Germany's Ministry of Economics and Technology, reported that Germany consumed �158 billion per year of raw materials of which �137 billion (87%) was imported. Dr. Hoth also described the German Government's strategy for raw materials, with a focus on research and development, improved access to raw materials, and bilateral raw material partnerships with third party countries, specifically noting tungsten and rare earths.

Dr. Dierk Paskert, CEO of Resource Alliance, a consortium of German industrial consumers of critical raw materials, described German consumption of rare earths and projections for growth in demand of the rare earths. He noted that studies on behalf of independent scientific institutes project neodymium demand for applications in the field of renewable energy to grow up to 18 fold between now and 2050, He stated that the Resource Alliance is working to secure long term reliable sources of supply for critical raw materials, and create a competitive rare earths market outside China including a complete value chain from mining to the manufacturing of downstream products such as magnets and luminescent phosphors.

Avalon's Bill Mercer, Vice President, Exploration and Pierre Neatby, Vice President, Marketing & Sales provided an overview of Avalon's advanced Nechalacho project, the only project outside China to have completed a comprehensive Feasibility Study that contemplates production of separated and refined heavy rare earth oxides.

Mr. Neatby noted that the Forum provided for an open discussion on the fundamental issues related to the rare earth market such as how consuming nations like Germany and Canada, with the largest rare metals reserves of any country in the world, can establish a secure and competitive rare earth supply chain. The main take-aways from this Forum from Avalon's perspective were:

• Germany will continue to be an increasingly significant consumer of rare earths in the future. 
• For many applications, if a secure, competitive source of rare earths was available, more rare earths would be consumed.
• Despite the recent fall in prices, no fundamental change to the rare earth market has occurred and China still controls the supply chain for heavy rare earths.