Metals / Commodities

• China Using Rare Earths as a Weapon

  China is currently responsible for more than 90 percent of the worlds rare-earth production, and some analysts allege that China is using its de facto monopoly to lure a high tech companies to China.  U.S. Magnetic Materials Association president  Ed Richardson said, "We're all losing. They (the Chinese) are using their monopoly of rare earths as a weapon. And they're going to get what they need." Richardson added that rare earth element (REE) mining projects currently being pursued by companies worldwide from Mongolia to Africa to counteract the Chinese de facto REE monopoly either will begin significant production too late…

• China - Record High Rare Earths Prices Promoting Illegal Mining

  Six months ago, China's exports of rare earth elements (RREs) breached the dizzying price of $100,000 per-ton barrier, a nearly 900 percent increase in prices from a year before, representing a remarkable $50 per pound for unprocessed ore. According to the CIA World Factbook, the estimated 2010 annual income for Chinese citizens overall was $7,600, or a princely $633 per month, or 12.6 lbs of raw rare earth ore, not that the excavators get anywhere near that final amount.As a rough rule of thumb, the further one goes westwards from China’s coastal regions, with its prosperous cities like Shanghai, Hong…

• China and Rare Earths - Monopoly for Now

  First, the bad news - China's constrained rare earth supplies will be an "irreversible trend" and prices will remain at high levels, according to Zhang Zhong, general manager of Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Co. Zhang should know, as his concern is China’s leading rare earths producer – the Baatou mine produces more than 95 percent of China’s production, while Chinese mines currently account for 97 percent of global supplies. The increase in global demand for rare earth metals has sent prices soaring in world markets. According to the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, since January rare earth metal…

• Mongolia Energy Riches Attract Neighbors and Outside Interests

  Pity poor Mongolia, bereft of fiscal resources, caught between the ambitions of its superpower neighbors, Russia and China. Ulaan Bator’s situation is akin to interwar Poland, dexterously attempting to reconcile its foreign policy between the USSR’s hammer and Nazi Germany’s hard place. Who will ultimately benefit is anyone’s guess, but the country’s nascent energy and mineralogical riches  have opened the land of Genghis Khan to a fierce bidding war those ultimate outcome is unclear at best. The nation is essentially empty, its 2.8 million citizens producing an average population density of just over 1 person per sq. km. That said,…

• China's Rare Earth Industry Coming under Greater Environmental Scrutiny

  China is planning to launch environmental checks for the rare earth industry this year to ensure environmental protection – a move that has been met with criticism from the local industry. According to a statement made by the Ministry of Environmental Protection last April, China plans to launch a string of environmental checks for the rare earth industry that will impose higher environmental standards on them, reported China Securities Journal. The ministry noted that local environmental departments will not approve environmental evaluation reports for new projects by companies that cheat or do not pass the checks. These checks will include…

• Mining and Better Business Practices in Mexico

  At the moment México has multiple mining operations and many are operated by transnational corporations, in a country known for its aversion to any form of foreign presence within its borders. On the other side, Mexico is also exporting more and more minerals to places such as China, with exponential growth in this area of trade due to a favorable climate for mining from the federal government. The people are against, the government for, and transnational mining companies are typically uninterested in what the people who live on the land or in the region think. This article will look at…

• The Coming Crisis in Phosphate Supplies

  Phosphate is a mineral that is used in fertilizer to boost agricultural productivity. It is greatly responsible for the "green" revolution and the increased output of farms around the world. Unfortunately, the world will be coming to a point, if certain trends hold, where we will run out of phosphate. The mineral is widely used, but utterly unrecycled. Like fossil fuels, phosphate may come to a point where it is too costly to use, and world hunger may be the consequence. Phosphate is an inorganic chemical mined from the earth. It typically consists of one phosphorus atom surrounded by oxygen…

• Afghanistan: Mining Boom Nurtures Transparency Concerns

  Go looking for Wahidullah Shahrani and chances are you’ll find him at an investor conference promoting Afghanistan as an ideal opportunity for global mining companies. By most accounts the minister of mines is an effective salesman. Yet, as investor interest grows, there are doubts about whether Afghanistan has the capacity to make the most of an expected surge in mining-related revenue. Afghanistan’s mining potential appears to be huge. Depending on whom you’re talking to in either Washington or Kabul, there is anywhere from $1 trillion- to $3 trillion-worth of minerals waiting to be excavated in the country. Now, as the…

• China’s Great Grain Robbery

  The Chinese are nothing if not opportunistic. You may recall that a shocking increase in this year’s corn crop predicted by the US Department of Agriculture triggered a series of limit down moves in the grain markets only 12 days ago (click here for “The Great Grain Massacre”). The corn ETF (CORN) was down by a gut churning 13.2% by the time the crying was over, while the grain ETF (JJG) was off by 9.8%. Despite terrible weather and soil conditions, farmers planted anyway, leading to a 1.52 million bushel increase in the forecast crop. Last week, The Chinese came…

• Pacific Ocean Seabed Rich in Rare Earth Minerals

  Spooked by the Chinese embargo of rare earth elements the rare earth mining industry is busily looking and investing in rare earth mineral extraction.  Several prospects look practical.  Meanwhile Japan’s Yasuhiro Kato, associate processor at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Engineering is leading a research group that’s found widely distributed high-quality rare earth-rich mud in the central and southeastern Pacific Ocean. Pacific Undersea Rare Earth Element Deposits. First one asks is that kind of deposit possible to gather and how deep? Kato notes the mineral resources are distributed 3,500 to 6,000 meters below the surface of the sea,…