On January 25, 2012, Strike Gold changed its name to Strike Graphite (Stock Profile - TSXV: SRK). In doing so, the company communicated quite clearly to the investment community that Strike had found its focus. Strike was an early-mover in the... Read more »

Mexico is a major producer of silver, gold and base metals. In addition, the country is also a leading producer of celestite, bismuth, fluorite, cadmium, molybdenum, graphite, and manganese. In the Fraser Institute's most recent Survey... Read more »

U.S. stocks rallied, driving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to its best weekly gain since March affirming the old Wall Street adage that "markets climb a wall of fear". The equity markets surged ahead on strong corporate earnings despite negative international news, almost across the board. On Friday, it was... Read more »

Perhaps we should call this article, "PDAC Revisited". While meeting with mining company executives at the annual Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention in Toronto in March, we wanted to know what was coming up in Q2, 2012? For some companies, it was business as usual, but a number of... Read more »

With the first quarter of a new year in the books we step back this month, take stock if you will, look towards the future and ponder what's in store for the balance of 2012. This year has been marked by volatility in both the commodities sector and the equity markets in general. Crude oil is north of $100 per barrel... Read more »

There is always a sector among the raw materials on the verge of a period of "euphoria". On the chart below, each resource is represented by a company, because the indexes do not exist for all of the individual resources. Notice that, for 10 years, there is always a sector that is in a phase of "boom",... Read more »

Approximately 48% of the world's 2007 mined cobalt was a byproduct of nickel mining from sulfide and laterite deposits. An additional 37% was produced as a byproduct of copper operations, mainly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Zambia. The remaining 15% of cobalt mining came from primary producers. The... Read more »

The U.S. mining industry has been in decline for decades. A number of factors have contributed to this trend making the world's most powerful nation ever dependent on the supply of foreign resources. A number of factors are attributed to the decline. First, restrictive environmental regulations make mining and processing... Read more »

The world's biggest economies are joining forces to oppose China's policies on domestic rare earth elements as the risk of a global shortage looms closer to reality. The United States joined the European Union and Japan to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Tuesday against China's export... Read more »

A Report by the APS Panel on Public Affairs and the Materials Research Society coined the term “energy-critical element” (ECE) to describe a class of chemical elements that currently appear critical to one or more new, energy related technologies. “Energy-related systems are typically materials intensive.... Read more »

After meeting with mining companies for the past two days at the annual PDAC convention in Toronto, we're pleased to present a list of upcoming mining milestones in March. Or shall we say, March/early April as prefaced by many of the executives in attendance at this year's convention. In alphabetical order, here's... Read more »

In 2010 a European Commission included graphite among the 14 materials it considered high in both economic importance and supply risk. The British Geological Survey listed graphite as one of the materials to most likely be in short supply globally. The US has also declared graphite a critical material. The U.S. Department... Read more »

We are delighted to bring you the MiningFeeds bottom fishing report. And to catch these fish, you don't need to know how to noodle. Noodling is the term used for fishing with your bare hands. Noodling is practiced primarily in the southern United States and the primary choice of noodlers is the flathead catfish. Flathead... Read more »

The U.S. Department of Energy, in its Dec. 2011 report entitled Critical Materials Strategy examined the role that Rare Earth Elements (REEs) and other key materials play in clean energy technologies such as wind turbines, electric vehicles, solar cells and energy-efficient lighting. Five of the... Read more »

From contributor David McKay, Miningmx. In my mind's eye, I have this picture of David Brown; with a glass of New Year's champagne in one hand and the last bars of 'Auld Lang Syne' ringing in his ears, wondering what 2012 would bring him. A brutal self- assessment of his leadership... Read more »

2012 is upon us and it was a good opening week for the both the markets and mining companies alike. On the heels of intense tax-loss selling in December despite positive economic data hitting the headlines as 2011 came to a close, nothing seemed to stem the tide of December tax-loss selling as many mining issuers set... Read more »

Rare earths came to the public's attention when China began to restrict their export in July, 2010. At the time, China announced a 72% year over year reduction in exports and with 97% of the world's current supply... Read more »

Strategic Minerals (also know as Critical Minerals) is a broad-based category that constitutes various minerals and elements; the majority of which are minor metals. Geography and availability of domestic supply often defines which minerals are deemed "critical"  for any particular region or country. On July 20,... Read more »

2011 has been a coming out party for rare earth elements and, more recently, a broader category of strategic raw materials. Strategic minerals constitute a variety of minerals and elements, most of which are minor metals, that are deemed critical to certain supply chains. Many minor metals are consumed in relatively... Read more »

3. American Vanadium Corp. (TSX-V: AVC) President Obama likes vanadium; or rather, he likes to say the word vanadium. Last February Obama joked that "Vanadium redox fuel cells is one of the coolest things I've ever said out loud". Obama also... Read more »

Rare earth elements (or rare earth metals) are a set of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, namely the fifteen lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium. Scandium and yttrium are considered rare earth elements since they tend to occur in the same ore deposits as the lanthanides and have similar... Read more »

If it weren't for rare earth elements, a collection of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table that are generally found together in ore deposits, the world as we know it today would look a whole... Read more »

3. Rare Element Resources Ltd. (TSX:RES) Rare Element Resources is an early pioneer in their sector. The company has a 100% interest in the Bear Lodge property in Wyoming, which, according to the US Geological Survey, is one of the largest disseminated rare earth deposits in North America. Along... Read more »

From the research report entitled "Rare Earth - Our Top Picks" by analyst Luisa Moreno at Jacob Securities Inc. The rare earth sector is fairly new to investors and it is experiencing a great deal of growth and volatility driven mainly by the dramatic cuts in export quotas... Read more »

China mines REEs from bastnasite ore in the provinces of Gansu and Sichuan. In Inner Mongolia REEs are obtained as a by-product from iron making. HREE extraction, based on ion absorption clays, occurs in the states of Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangxi and Jiangsu. These clays have very low cerium content and as a consequence... Read more »

Is rare earth metals mania another bubble that is about to pop, or a genuine shift in the supply demand curve? That question is the crux of a heated debate this week after Goldman Sachs analyst Malcolm Southwood said the back-story on rare earths, which have rocketed to more than ten times their value in just a couple... Read more »

On December 21st, 2010,  Avalon announced it would list on the NYSE Amex exchange. The company's shares rose more than 20 percent after the announcement, to close the day at $4.91. The added liquidity of a U.S. listing has apparently served the company well. Shares have continued to surge, closing today at $9.13,... Read more »

Not all alkali metals are created equally. All of the alkali metals share similar properties: they are highly reactive metals under standard conditions and are thus never found in their elemental form in nature. The two alkali metals that are of particular value to investors are lithium, due to its high electrochemical... Read more »

Read the word lithium and it’s likely not too long before you are reading the word battery. Jon Hykawy, lithium analyst for Byron Capital Markets echoed the sentiments of many recently when he described lithium as “hot and getting hotter.” Lithium... Read more »

3. Talison Lithium (TSX:TLH) With a market capitalization near half a billion dollars, Talison Lithium is the biggest lithium mining company listed in Canada, and the largest pure lithium... Read more »

Platinum, among the rarest and costliest of metals, is also one of the most green. Platinum is so rare that all of the metal ever mined would fill a room measuring less than 25 feet on each side. The metal has many critical commercial... Read more »

What's in a name? A lot, apparently. When Ucore Uranium last summer changed its name to Ucore Rare Metals (TSXV:UCU) shares of the company were floundering. Today,... Read more »

A cell phone the size of a shoe. A laptop that weighs more than a truck tire. If it weren't for rare earth metals, a collection of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table that are generally found in ore deposits, technology... Read more »