Frik Els, Author at MINING.COM

Insiders light fire under Belo Sun, shares rocket 30%

Patriot Coal is burning down

Trading in the stock was halted in a circuit breaker around lunchtime after falling 57.6% over doubts about its finances and is now worth less than tenth of what it was in July last year.

Frik Els | May 22, 2012 | 7:47 pm

Copper off to the races after Wen comments

Copper saw a strong start to the trading week adding 1.8% following pro-growth comments by the Chinese premier Wen Jiabao over the weekend.

Frik Els | May 21, 2012 | 10:45 pm

Hard coal landing: Australia scraps $9 billion port expansion

The state government has scrapped plans for a $8.8 billion coal terminal expansion project at Queensland's Abbot Point, Australia citing funding issues and environmental regulations, but China's slowing economy probably had more than a little to do with it.

Frik Els | May 21, 2012 | 9:18 pm

Hedge funds raise bearish gold price bets by 44%

Gold rally runs out of steam before $1,600 mark

Traders said support given to Greece to stay in the Eurozone at the weekend's G8 meeting and a stronger dollar hurt the yellow metal.

Frik Els | May 21, 2012 | 9:16 pm

Billionaire battle: Property tycoon says Rinehart is bilking him out of iron royalties

Gina Rinehart, the world of mining's 4th richest person, is meeting a fellow billionaire Stan Perron in the Australian supreme court this week in a fight over – no surprises here – iron ore royalties.

Frik Els | May 21, 2012 | 8:38 pm

Iron ore hits six-month low as China just says no

Iron ore prices fell on Monday to six-month lows of $130/tonne as Chinese steelmakers demand cargo deferrals or simply default on shipments.

Frik Els | May 21, 2012 | 8:00 pm

China’s rare earth quotas are a joke. 74% of oxides never left port this year

Chinese authorities added 10,680 tonnes to the country's export allowance this week but it is something of a meaningless exercise because during the first quarter China only exported 26.3% of the initial quota.

Frik Els | May 18, 2012 | 9:00 pm

Graff Diamonds IPO should catapult the diamond king up the billionaires list

Laurence Graff, the undisputed king of uber-expensive diamonds, will earn a tidy $290 million windfall when he restructures his Mayfair-based company and will vastly boost his paper wealth when Graff Diamonds lists in Hong Kong for as much as $4 billion.

Frik Els | May 18, 2012 | 8:58 pm

Rare earthquake: May last year Molycorp investors were $5.5 billion richer

The Colorado company is destined to become the number one producer outside China, but the rapidly changing economics of the industry has seen its stock decline 20% this week and 74% since May last year.

Frik Els | May 18, 2012 | 6:05 pm