Rio Tinto shares slump as Serbia pulls plug on its $2.4bn lithium project

A metal that’s in demand for batteries is surging, and it’s not the one everyone’s talking about.

The world's largest mining and construction equipment maker beat market expectations for fourth quarter earnings and said its sales growth momentum is expected to continue in 2018.

Big mining companies, restored to health following the 2015-16 price crash, are seeking to rationalize their portfolios and acquire assets in line with heightened focus on the best quality minerals and anticipated demand for battery materials.

The deal frees the miner to apply for increase in production quota amid demand boom and surging prices for lithium, which is used in EV batteries.

Some of Europe's richest deposits of valuable materials are in the trash, ranging from gold in smartphones to cobalt in electric car batteries.

China’s global resource grab, and the ramifications for the rest of the world, are on my radar screen. Are they on yours? If not, maybe they should be.

A full green shift still requires plenty of natural resources- they're just not the traditional fossil fuels we're used to.

Decision doesn’t mean the miner has abandoned plans to capitalize on the electric-car boom, sources familiar with the matter say.

The nation, responsible for about two thirds of global output, plans to increase tax on cobalt to 5% from 2%.