On August 15th, Mark Smith, the president and CEO of rare earth producer Molycorp (MCP), made one of the strangest insider purchases I have ever observed. Just two months earlier he dumped his last tranche of stock for a total 259,260 shares on the year at a gross value of $13.1M.

It has been said that the best place to look for a new mine is next to an existing mine. -- Harris Kupperman, Mining Services Primer, Nov. 10, 2009. If the premise in that quote is true, there is more gold to find in Mongolia.

There has been a lot of interest in Silver lately. Silver has been touted as a safe haven in a fashion similar to Gold. Many commentators suggest a 5% to 10% or more allocation towards precious metals as portfolio hedges.

Over the last eleven consecutive quarters, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX) has beat consensus estimates - a considerable feat that comes amidst unpredictable labor disruptions.

Gold had an amazing run in the last 5 years. It has moved from $600 to a price of around $1700 today. Prices have almost tripled. This year gold prices reached a high of $1900, before dropping back to the $1600 – 1700 range.

By : by Stuart Burns An article in Reuters last week makes worthwhile reading, despite (or maybe because of) the disturbingly negative view the author holds for the copper market next year. Some feel Simon Hunt is to the metals markets what Nouri...

The volatility in oil prices has some questioning the staying power of the oil majors, particularly in the wake of so much economic uncertainty around the globe.

Current market uncertainty has caused many investors to seek safety in precious metals, including gold and silver.

Coal sector M&A activity has picked up this year, with no end in sight. Rio Tinto (RIO) made a proactive acquisition when it bought an emerging coking coal player in Mozambique and it recently tendered for the 25% of shares of Australia's Coal & Allied Industries that it doesn't already own.

Although currently not as heavily discussed as gold, silver has had quite a volatile run over the last several years. In fact, it was just $9 a couple of years ago, and, now, even after a major correction, is still over 4 times higher.

Shares of Aluminum Corporation of China ( ACH ) are down 4.4% after the firm reports a 22% drop in H1 net profit. The company says losses from hedging activity and rising sales costs socked profits. Post your comment!

We’re setting up to capitalize on reversal of the recent trends, i.e. energies, metals and indices just to name a few. Crude oil as of this post will close down just over $2/barrel below the trend line that has held since the June lows.