Cobalt

The substantial capex required for the development of a rare earths mine, compounded by major miners' lack of interest in mining rare earths, may spell trouble in meeting future demand.

Rare earth producer Molycorp (MCP) said Friday it has been granted U.S. government authorization to begin exploratory drilling for heavy rare earth minerals in Mountain Pass, California.

Cows shrinking to the point they turn into cats and villagers wrapped in do-it-yourself anti-radiation suits are only some of the effects of allowingAustralia's Lynas Corporation to open a rare earths plant inMalaysia, according to not-so-subtle protest short satirical films populating YouTube these days.

Toyota Tsusho Corp., the trading company of the Asia’s largest automaker, will help accelerate production of rare-earth metals for Canadian mining company Matamec Explorations Inc. and buy all the output from its Kipawa mine.

Australia-based Greenland Minerals and Energy Ltd (GME) stocks went up 10 per cent on the ASX from 58 cents to 64 cents on Monday, after the company announced it could start producing uranium on its Kvanefjeld property in Greenland.

A small group of protestors converged on Lynas Corporation’s annual general meeting in Sydney yesterday in opposition to the company’s rare earth refinery in Malaysia.

North American stock exchanges are on a tear today after central banks made more funds available to lenders, giving investors hope for a way out of the European debt debacle. The markets were also cheered by better than expected private sector job growth in the United States. The mining-heavy S&P/TSX Composite was up 2.5% to just over 12,000 at time of writing. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 384 points, or 3.3%, the most on a closing basis since Aug. 11, according to Bloomberg. Spot gold was up $32 from yesterday to $1747 which is just above the 20-day moving average of $1744, noted Kitco. Silver was up marginally to $32.86 from yesterday's $31.92, while benchmark copper was up more than 5% to a two-week high of $7,885/tonne. Zinc, lead, aluminum and nickel were also up from Tuesday.

One of the more unique lots at Christie's Magnificent Jewels auction on November 29 in Hong Kong is likely to be a set of poker chips made by the Swedish artist and jeweller Kristian Ståhl. The 120 chips are made of 18K white gold and are set with a total of 5,160 calibrated top-quality diamonds, rubies and sapphires. But what makes the set truly unique is that each chip was sliced from the 1 million year old Muonionalusta meteorite that contains iron, nickel and rare earths. The set is estimated at $100,000 – $150,000 and Stahl said he was inspired to create it after his Siberian mammoth ivory dice sold well at auction last year.

Pele Mountain Resources Inc. (TSX Venture: GEM; OTCQX: GOLDF) (“Pele” or the “Company”) today announced that processing design improvements have resulted in sharply higher recoveries of critical rare earth oxides (“REO”), including neodymium, dysprosium and yttrium oxides, (Pele’s “Big 3 REO”) at its Eco Ridge Mine Rare Earths and Uranium Project (“Eco Ridge” or the “Project”) in Elliot Lake,Ontario.