Frik Els , Editor

The price of the most abundant rare-earths are set to extend their decline from records this year as Japanese manufacturers, including Toyota the world’s top REE consumer, switch to recycled materials or eliminate the need for REEs altogether. Prices of certain elements such as cerium used to polish TV screens and lenses are already down 40% after months of break-neck price hikes while lanthanum which finds its way into nickel-metal hydride batteries has shown similar declines. However, the price of some REEs such as samarium used in jet fighter electrical systems are showing no signs of decline despite increasing 25-fold in just three years.

Enterprise Products Partners and Enbridge on Thursday announced a proposed new 800 kilometre (500 mile) pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma – the pricing point for US crude – to the Gulf of Mexico. The Wrangler Pipeline would have the capacity to carry up to 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day. Although the glut at Cushing has eased this year it is the main factor behind US crude trading near a record discount of $25/barrel to the international Brent benchmark. Canadian heavy oil from the oil sands – all of which goes to the US – sells for $10+ less than US crude, meaning oil sands developers have to deal with an effective oil price of $60-$70 a barrel. Unlike the controversial Keystone XL, Wrangler does not cross international boundaries and won't have to be approved by US president Barack Obama.

Vancouver-based gold and copper explorer BCGold Corp. dropped 10% or 1c on the Toronto venture board after announcing that it closed the second tranche of its private placement for a total just shy of $1.6 million. In a sign that raising money is much harder now than just three months ago, the number falls far short of the $2.4 million the tiny firm was hoping for when it announced the non-brokered private placement in July. The firm hasn't struggled to find investors in the past – sector giant Kinross holds 8% while institutions have secured more than a fifth of the company. The stock is down from an all-time high of 80c hit in January of 2007.

Mining Weekly reports mining giant BHP Billiton unveiled plans on Wednesday to increase its iron-ore production in the Pilbara region – the heart of Australia's iron ore mining – to 450-million tons a year by adding infrastructure and building new mines. BHP's current iron-ore production capacity is 155 million tons a year in the Pilbara, while rival Rio Tinto’s capacity is 225 million tons a year. Rio Tinto announced a fortnight ago that it wants to grow output to 333 million tonnes by 2015.

Speaking to reporters at an industry conference in Qingdao China, the world's largest iron ore miners said on Wednesday they have seen no weakness in demand from China. Forecasts for China's imports by 2015 now top 1 billion tonnes – up more than 60% from 2010 – due to the relatively high cost and the low quality of its domestic supplies. Firm demand from China's construction sector and a drop off in India's exports have been behind the strength in spot iron ore prices which, at above $170 a tonne, have trebled from late 2008. The big three – BHP, Vale and Rio Tinto – control nearly 70% of the annual iron ore seaborne trade and dominate price talks.

Vale announced this week it is investing $15 billion to expand fertilizer production joining a Canadian merchant bank promoting a $4 billion potash project in the Amazon basin. There's just one problem: the land is owned by Brazil's state oil company Petrobras and they've also found oil there.

TransCanada’s bid to build the Keystone XL pipeline is facing growing high-profile opposition, drawing fire from the Dalai Lama (pictured), Archbishop Desmond Tutu and seven other Nobel Peace Prize laureates on Wednesday who are following in the footsteps of a raft of Hollywood celebrities and green activists. The laureates, only one of whom is North American, insist the project will "endanger the entire planet" and urged US President Barack Obama not to approve construction of the $7 billion, 3,190km Keystone XL pipeline that could carry up to 700,000 barrels per day of Alberta’s oil sands to refineries on the US Gulf Coast and ensure a better price for Canadian crude, which trades at a discount of more than $20/barrel to international prices.

Stillwater Mining Company on Monday became one of the first miners to find funding drying up following the punishment meted out to precious metals recently, when it announced after market close that it is withdrawing its proposed offering of senior notes due to the "dramatic deterioration of the capital markets during the past week." Stillwater said it still has enough funds for the $165 million net cash portion of the Peregrine transaction. The counter shed just over 1% of its value on the NYSE on Monday on a generally positive day for the markets, but is down 35% since last Monday. Stillwater is the only US producer of palladium and platinum and is the largest primary producer of platinum group metals outside of South Africa and Russia. Platinum was trading at $1,565/oz on Monday, down from a year-high of $1,916/oz.

A statement put out by Ivanhoe Mines on Monday telling investors that its Oyu Tolgoi project remains on track and pooh-poohing rumours about the Mongolian government reneging on the deal that Ivanhoe and partner Rio Tinto spent five years negotiating did little to ease the fears of investors. By lunchtime Ivanhoe had plummeted more than 21.3%, crashing through the $10 billion market valuation level and taking the week's losses to 33%, with the number of shares changing hands already exceeding the daily average. Ivanhoe also appeared to have patched things up with Rio Tinto on Monday after it said last week it's unhappy that the world's number two miner told investors about possible delays to the mega-project.

The Blue Mountains Gazette reports the Australian Coal Association says $1.3 billion in proposed government compensation would delay by only one year the premature closure of four of the 21 mines that an industry survey found were under threat from the government's carbon tax. On top of the carbon tax set to kick in mid-2012, Australian miners also have to contend with the new minerals resource rent tax set at an effective 22.5% rate on the so-called super-profits of the extractive industries.