The Chinese economy is likely to land softly, rather than with a jolt, with growth forecast at 8.2% this year and 8.6% in 2013, according to The World Bank.
In what could be considered a slight victory for embattled Australian rare earths miner Lynas Corporation (ASX:LYC), the Malaysian High Court ruled today against a request to review a recent decision to grant the Lynas a temporary licence (TOL) for its processing plant.
Hitachi has built an 11-kilowatt motor that uses no rare earth materials. The motor took four years to develop, and commercial production is expected in two years.
Overall, only the stock indices of Spain and Portugal's top companies fared worse than Toronto's S&P/TSX-60. But in the group of resource-heavy exporting countries Canada's stock market came in stone last.
U.S.-based Molycorp, Inc., one of the only non-Chinese producers of rare earths, announced today that its proven and probable reserves of rare earth minerals at its Mountain Pass, California facility have increased by 36 percent, according to a new independent estimate.
Brazilian miner World Mineral Resources (WMR) has found a large reserve of neodymium, one of the 17 rare earth elements, in the western Bahia state, which could bring US$8.4 billion to the country.
In a move to curb the rampant domestic illegal mining of rare earth, as well as to regulate its rare earths players, China launched on Sunday its industry association for the precious metal commodity, as MINING.com anticipated last week.
The source of the surge in mining investment has been quite diverse, reflecting the widespread advance in prices. For 2012, gold leads the way with $3.6 billion of capital spending. But not far behind are copper-nickel-zinc mines at $3 billion, potash at $2.9 billion and iron ore at $2.7 billion as the Labrador Trough is developed.
Domestic rare earth supplies will meet the U.S. defense industry’s needs by 2013 for the materials that go into military motors and electronics, according to a Pentagon report sent to Congress.
