The Falkenhain deposit, in the German state of Saxony, is located about 5 km from another Bacanora asset in Germany — the 50%-owned Zinnwald lithium project.
The World Bank-supported mining legislation was introduced to attract investment into copper and cobalt projects from global miners including Glencore Plc, Freeport-McMoRan Inc. and China Molybdenum Co. Gécamines claims country has not benefited from it.
The mine could supply up to 10% of world demand for neodymium and praseodymium, used in the manufacture of magnets for wind turbines, and electric vehicles.
The mining cycle turned two years ago – gains for the sector's largest companies have far outpaced stocks like Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook since.
Breakthrough discovery backed by the US government replaces cobalt with iron in lithium-ion batteries – enabling much cheaper, longer lasting batteries.
