Cobalt

The World Trade Organization will investigate China's quotas and tariffs on rare earth minerals following prompting from the US, EU and Japan, who allege the export restrictions are in contravention of international trade regulations.

The Chinese government has halved the number of rare earth mining rights in the country pulling 65 permits in all, according to a report by ChinaDaily USA.

Recent discoveries of rare earth minerals at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean could break China's existing stranglehold on supply of the key raw materials.

The Canadian mining company continues to struggle with cost overruns at its flagship Boleo mine in Mexico, the company has not yet received any funding proposals for the project and only has enough money to run it until August 1.

The exchange will be located in Baotou city in Inner Mongolia region, which is home to nearly half the world's light rare-earth output.

The company said 50kg of dysprosium with 99.9% purity was separated from resins remaining from past production runs at the former Soviet Union's number one rare earth plant.

"Passage of this legislation is an important step toward recovering the 22,000 rare earth-related jobs the U.S. has lost since the 1980s.”

Equity investing is squarely in a risk-off phase and few sectors have been hit harder than junior mining.

New research released Monday indicates that listed mining and resources companies across the world are keen to comply with the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which were officially adopted one year ago, but must keep up the momentum in order to maintain public confidence in their efforts.