China to tighten steel capacity swapping, boost domestic iron ore output

Can it really be worse than last year, when the copper price dropped 26% in a single month?

In lunchtime trade Molycorp was changing hands for $24.37, down $1.06 or 4%, in reaction to a downgrade and as investors continue […]

A forest of fossils that is being compared to a "vegetational Pompeii" is under threat from coal mining, says a story in China Daily.

BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE:BHP) is betting on the iron ore market as one of the forces to drive the mining industry in the next decade, especially as developing nations such as China move from investment-led economic growth to consumption-led economic growth.

Sinopec Group, China’s second biggest oil and gas producer, announced it has launched its first shale gas project, expecting to produce 300 to 500 million cubic metres a year by the end of 2012, said the conglomerate on Tuesday.

Even by the not very high standards of current US political discourse, the polemic is a little thin on logic.

There was a strong reaction last week to the elevated debt crisis in Europe, with commodities and equities being indiscriminately sold. Gold fell 3 percent this week, losing its safe haven status as the dollar grew stronger and the 10-year government note headed lower.

Many have compared today’s economic recovery to the slow, stagnant growth Americans lived through in the 1970s.

It has been a difficult week for precious metals, as gold and silver both experienced their lowest closes of the year.