Lynas signs contract for US rare earths facility

Albemarle said it could invest $1-billion in Chile over the next 5 years if request to the government to let it extract 125,000 tonnes per year is approved.

It would have opened up for mining a vast national reserve in the country’s Amazon, larger than the size of Switzerland.

Arnoud Balhuizen, head of marketing at BHP, said the impact of the looming electric vehicle boom for raw materials producers would be felt first in the metals markets and only later in oil.

Rumours point at US chemical company Albenarle Corporation as the first potential buyer for PotashCorp interest in SQM, worth about $4.5 billion.

The specialty chemicals company said the overall market "could be (worth) more than $30 billion (in) sales when battery electric vehicle penetration increases to around 10 percent.

Environmental protection campaigns in China are tightening the country's supplies of both graphite and needle coke.

North Korea may not have proved petroleum reserves, but it's estimated that the secluded belligerent nation sits on reserves of more than 200 minerals—including rare earth minerals—worth an estimated up to US$10 trillion.

Move would seek to secure approval for its friendly merger with smaller rival Agrium, creating the world’s largest potash miner worth about $36 billion.

Active mining concessions add up to 25,716