Pensana seeks funding for Angola rare earth project

Early signs of activity include Kinross Gold's March decision to expand its Mauritanian gold mine and Goldcorp acquisition of junior Kaminak for $520 million in May.

Construction at Carrapateena will commence next year, with first production in 2019.

Firmly back above $50 a tonne as miners' cost deflation eases.

Capital spending by the world's largest miners since 2010 amounted to $632 billion – 32% of which has now been written off says new report.

Most analysts believe the commodities market has turned a corner and that prices are unlikely to return to lows seen in the past year.

This year, global production is expected to level out as project development budgets were slashed during the three-year gold bear market. But with gold prices rebounding, miners are in a good position to be much more profitable.

CHARTS: Down 26% in a month the forward curve now points to the low $30s.

And while the Singaporean-based owners of the Basslink infrastructure have now targeted a revised restart for the end of this month, the new EnergyQuest report released today says the Basslink related economic losses to date are at best conservative.

Scandium promises to be a future wonder metal. And Australia is likely to become its major source of supply.