Cobalt

China, the world’s largest supplier of rare earth, may almost double exports this year, meeting quotas set by the government as lower prices continue to stimulate demand.

The mining sector's bellwether companies were all beaten down on Monday after China's premier Wen Jiabao delivered a downbeat outlook for the world's second largest economy adding that there were "new problems" to deal with.

Two of Zambia's largest copper mines, Glencore's Mopani and Xstrata's Kansanshi were shut over the weekend; the former over health concerns and the other after workers downed tools.

A new survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit finds when institutional investors interested in frontier markets were asked to choose two regions out of five, two-thirds see Africa – projected to be the fastest growing region on the planet this year – as holding the greatest opportunity.

Thousands of protesters have been converging on Lynas Corporation's new rare earths processing facility in Malaysia according to reports. The Australian producer's website was also hacked over the weekend.

Molycorp, the company in the process of expanding and modernizing a mine and processing plant closed down in 2002, this week announced the sequential start-up of its Project Phoenix rare earth manufacturing facility.

Baja Mining is fighting attempts by Mount Kellett, a $6 billion asset manager, to stack the miner's board with its own nominees. Baja is accusing Mount Kellett of a takeover by stealth while MK says Baja is a web of conflicts.

Mining and processing rare earths is a tricky business. Processing the materials is costly, and the supply of the 17 elements used in manufacturing everything from smart phones to electric cars and missile guidance systems is pretty much sewn up by China, which has 95% of the production.

Malaysian residents opposed to a rare earths processing facility have launched a legal challenged that threatens to delay the project put forward by Australia's Lynas Corp.