US fighter jets and missiles are in rare-earth firing line

It may not be quite the same as hitting the local ATM, but China is making it easier for consumers to buy bullion. AFP reported on Sunday that the Beijing Agricultural Commercial Bank and a gold trading company have installed China's first gold vending machine in a busy shopping district of Beijing:

Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) Group President and Chief Financial Officer Ed Rapp wants a lower corporate tax rate […]

Iron ore's 20-year price run is likely to come to an end in the next three years, according to new data from Bloomberg, with a surge in supply set to knock $50 off the price of the crucial steelmaking ingredient by 2015: Global prices may fall 29 percent to an average $123 a metric ton in 2015 from a record $173 this year, according to the median estimates of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. The decline contrasts with estimates for little change in copper and a 10 percent increase for aluminum in the same period, London Metal Exchange futures prices show.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Sept. 22, 2011) - Silvercorp Metals Inc. ("Silvercorp" or the "Company") (TSX:SVM)(NYSE:SVM) announced it has acquired a total of 4,468,012 of its common shares at a total cost of $34,949,140 (average price of CDN$7.82 pursuant to its normal course issuer bid ("NCIB") announced on June 17, 2011. Under the existing NCIB the Company intends to acquire up to 10 million common shares. All common shares purchased under the NCIB will be cancelled.

kailin-robolt-h395-small.jpg Sandvik has received a contract worth approximately €6.5 million from the Chinese Kailin Group for the supply of 19 mining machines, including Sandvik jumbos, bolters, and long hole rigs. The machines will be delivered by the end of 2012. Kailin has long been a Sandvik customer. The picture shows a Sandvik roof bolter photographed during [...]

Without international agreements to limit greenhouse gas emissions, a new energy report sees world coal consumption taking off, rising from 139 quadrillion Btu in 2008 to 209 quadrillion Btu in 2035. The U.S. Energy Information Administration released its International Energy Outlook 2011 on Monday. While OECD countries, like the U.S., Canada, Australia and Japan, show a flat to declining consumption in coal, the non-OECD countries, namely China and India, show the demand for coal-powered energy exploding.

Three years before it has yet to really produce coal, the northern Galilee Basin is already fully booked to Indian and Chinese coal mining companies. The Australian Newspaper said India's Adani Group already owns some 7.8 billion tones into the Queensland coal field, and is poised to pay an additional US$1.3 billion for a 7.9 billion-tonne coal tenement. While Australian billionaire Clive Palmer owns some 3.7 billion tones into the field, which reports say he is developing with Chinese business partners. The northern Galilee basin has a total of 20 billion tonnes production capacity.

While all eyes may be on the sovereign debt crisis in Europe or the ongoing jobs and budget battle in the U.S., Ian Bremmer says that the biggest economic concern is China, the world's leading importer of both copper and iron ore. Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, a global political risk research and consulting firm, hears lots of criticism about the hard decisions are being put off in both Europe and the U.S., and the literal can is being kicked down the road. "The largest can that is getting kicked furthest down the road right now is clearly in Beijing," says Bremmer who spoke to Bloomberg last week.

China's position as the world's economic engine is being reinforced as expectations for growth in developed markets wane, but so is the risk a decline in its appetite for metals and minerals may mean the Asian giant won't offset any Western slowdown.