Greenland’s treasure trove of rare earth metals, the largest deposit outside of China, cannot be mined because the elements are connected to restricted radioactive materials.
Venezuela has its eye on becoming a major minerals producer, though its capacity to do so is in question, according to Maplecroft's principal Latin America analyst James Lockhart-Smith.
From silver-lined prophylactics to iron Buddhas from space, 2012 has seen some strange and fascinating stories on the topics of both base and precious metals