Cobalt

Stocks in heavyweight rare earth miners soared on Thursday with Molycorp adding 2.5% after trading up over 4% earlier and Lynas Corp wiping out losses it suffered on delays at its Malaysian refinery, gaining 4% on huge volumes. REE stocks are usually volatile but investors digested a lot of news this week: first there was the discovery of massive marine rare earth deposits which was quickly followed by deep scepticism, then the WTO ruled China’s export restrictions violate trade rules and now some analysts believe of the 150 listed REE projects only five will ever enter production.

Pacific Wildcat Resources announced the initial NI 43-101 compliant independent Niobium mineral resource estimate report for the Mrima Hill Niobium and Rare Earth Project in Kenya. The Niobium mineral resource estimate is from surface down to a maximum depth of 30 metres with 83% of the mineral resource tonnes being found in the top 20 metres.

A team of Japanese scientists have found large quantities of rare earth minerals on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. In a Nature Geoscience article published on Monday, the team said that it looked at 78 sites throughout the eastern South and central North Pacific ranging in depths of 3,500 to 6,000 metres. “We estimate that an area of just one square kilometre, surrounding one of the sampling sites, could provide one-fifth of the current annual world consumption of these elements”

The China Post reports two of China's largest rare earths producers Rising Nonferrous Metals Share Co. and Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth (Group) Hi-tech Co. — the listed arms of state-owned companies — said they signed a deal this week to cooperate extensively in the sector. China’s tightening grip on the market became clear last week when Hong Kong customs data showed rare earth ores, metals and compounds exports fell 11% over a single month while at the same time the value of exports surged 242%. News out on Friday of safety delays for a rare earth refinery in Malaysia that would have supplied some 39% of the elements outside China is expected to put further pressure on prices.

Australia's Lynas Corporation lost more than 11% of its value on Friday after it emerged the company's Malaysian rare-earth refinery may be delayed by a government review that called for higher safety standards, further limiting supply of rare earths. Once in operation, the Lynas project could account for more than a third of the world’s supply outside of China. China in recent months closed or consolidated more than 35 rare earth mines and cut export quotas sparking concerns in the US and other industrial nations about access to supplies and causing a frenzy of exploration and development activity.

China’s massive appetite for commodities is creating concerns for the global economy, the environment and workers in other countries. In a series of reports, VOA is looking at the economic power modern China wields. Chinese government and company officials are signing agreements at a dizzying pace around the world, including in places where few other foreigners invest.

Surging prices of rare earth elements, coupled with slashed export quotas from China, are creating ripples in the rare earths industry, including a call for the US government to start stockpiling the materials. Vancouver-based Quantum Rare Earth Developments Corp. (TSX-V:QRE; OTCQX:QREDF; FRANKFURT:BR3) issued a news release Friday calling on the U.S. to start stockpiling rare earths— voicing support for recent US legislation that directs the Department of Defense to set up an inventory of rare earth oxides, metals, alloys, and magnets for defense purposes.

China's global share of rare earth output will drop steeply in the next two years as other countries ramp up production to compensate for domestic curbs on mining the minerals, a former government official and future rare earth group chief said. The country's rare earth output would drop from 95 percent of global output to 60 percent, reversing global reliance on China, Wang Caifeng, a former Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) official told the official China Daily.

China's exports of rare earth ores, metals and compounds, fell 11% in May compared to April and 8.8% to 23,742 metric tons in the first five months of the year compared to last year. At the same time the value of exports surged 242% to $1.6 billion, customs data supplied by Hong Kong-based Economic Information & Agency showed Tuesday. China in recent months closed or consolidated more than 35 rare earth mines and cut export quotas sparking concerns in the US and other industrial nations about access to supplies and causing a frenzy of exploration and development activity.