Faltering metals get check-up as industry gathers in Hong Kong

Molycorp was forced to sell rare-earth oxides from Mountain Pass for 20% cheaper than during the December quarter last year. The company's stock is now worth 60% less than this time last year and all the gains from the Neo Material takeover have evaporated.

The head office is just one among 800-odd mining companies clustered in downtown Vancouver. But even in a group so large it serves as the backbone of the city’s business district — and the world’s centre of mining expertise — Teck Resources stands out.

With the price of uranium down about 25% from levels reached before the Japanese earthquake and nuclear disaster in Japan last year, the least the industry wanted to hear was what the latest edition of the Scotiabank Commodity Price Index had to say: the yellow material prices may well bottom in 2012.

Rio Tinto, the world's third largest miner behind BHP Billiton and Vale, is bullish on the demand for commodities despite renewed volatility in Europe and the risk of financial contagion.

With huge investments in Peruvian copper, Chinalco Mining, a division of the giant Aluminum Corp of China, follows another Chinese state-owned miner to the Hong Kong market to raise money.

At a time when hedge funds are reducing bullish silver bets by the most in two years, analysts predict a rally as manufacturing expands from China to the U.S., boosting demand for the precious metal most used in industry.

Gold imports to China from Hong Kong were up 59% in March, according to the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department.

A total of 242,000 tonnes of iron ore were traded on the first day of business on China’s first physical iron ore trading platform, China Beijing Mining Exchange (CBMX) said in a press release.

A private group of Chinese magnates is planning to take away Guinea’s Simandou, the world's largest undeveloped iron ore project, from Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto.