Europe — and Germany in particular — can start to plan for a nearby source of rare earths, and HREE especially. This is one of the implications of the milestone reached this week at Tasman Metals (TSX.V:TSM, Frankfurt:T61, NYSE-MKT:TAS). As reported here, Tasman has now been granted its mining lease for the Norra Karr heavy rare earth project in Sweden. This gives the company full mineral rights for an initial 25 years (although Norra Karr has an estimated mine life of at least 40 years); the rights can be renewed in 10-year increments if the mine is in operation. Moreover,…
Goldman Sachs sees potash as the commodity for the next decade. In its latest report, Evolution of the super cycle: what’s changed and what may, Goldman places potash among the top 10 future themes in commodities. They say what we’ve been saying since Potashblog.com — one of the forerunners of ProEdgeWire — was started. As the Goldman analysts put it, “growing population, an increasing middle class and decreasing arable land, all lend themselves o increasing demand for potash”. That's it. In a nutshell. They equate potash with iron ore: like iron ore several years ago, there is in potash now…
On the back of news from Potash Corp of Saskatchewan that spot potash prices have gained up to $70/tonne in recent weeks, with deals in Southeast Asia being done at $470/tonne, comes a bank report that sees shipments of the fertilizer feedstock on the recovery track. Analyst Patricia Mohr at Toronto-based Scotiabank notes that spot prices were largely flat in April at around $405/tonne (against $452.50 last December) but look like picking up soon. Yet April, according to some press reports, saw Canada’s biggest monthly potash export volume since the 1990s. Mohr notes that while buyers in Brazil and Malaysia…
Mr Market seems to have decided that a jilted heavy rare earth explorer might be worth another look. After its battering last week (down 30.4% on Thursday, down a further 4% on Friday and no trading Monday), TUC Resources (ASX:TUC) bounced 13.2% after the Australian market opened Tuesday morning to hit A6c. No further announcement has been made since TUC reported on Thursday that Shandong Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources had shelved the memorandum-of-understanding that would have seen A$19 million invested in the junior’s projects which have good yttrium, dysprosium and erbium content. However, on Tuesday morning also…
Are we on the way back? That is, has the rare earths sector finally bottomed out? Too early to tell, but some stocks are again showing life and making gains, some in considerable percentage leaps. (Australian and Canadian share prices are in their respective currencies. Trading in dual listed markets, or over-the-counter, are excluded from the summary below.) The tone for Friday was set by Molycorp (NYSE:MCP), which saw its stock just after the New York open headed for a 22% rise after reporting a smaller than expected loss. (The details are in the news column on ProEdgeMedia’s home page.)…
China has done it yet again: a state-owned company starts to cosy up to a foreign mineral company and then, a few months later, pulls the plug on the proposed deal. Often the strategy is intended to force the target to take a far less attractive offer than was originally made. The latest victim is Australia’s TUC Resources (ASX:TUC) which has been notified by the Shandong Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources that the Chinese side will not now take any action on a memorandum-of-understanding signed in January regarding TUC’s heavy rare earth-dominated projects. TUC shares dropped more than…
Potash is the news with two developments — a new controversy over Saskatchewan potash policy and India slicing its subsidies (again). Clearly, it may not be all plain sailing for the potash producers in the near future with London brokers Whitman Howard predicting subdued Indian demand and prices possibly going lower than the $400/tonne recently negotiated with Indian and Chinese customers. As of April 1, the Indian government cut its potash and phosphate subsidies. The hardest hit is muriate of potash, the dominant form imported by India; those subsidies have been reduced by 21.5% to 11,300 rupees a tonne ($209.69)…
How about a metal product that commands up to $396,000 a tonne? That’s the top of the range for high-purity alumina (HPA). About 7,500 tonnes is produced globally each year. Even at the bottom of the range the price is impressive at $141,000 a tonne. As explained by one of the hopeful new entrants, Australian Minerals & Mining Group (ASX:AKA), HPA is widely used in filters for magnetic media to boost thermal conductivity, in composite resins and ceramic parts and substrates used in electronic components and semi-conductor manufacturing equipment. Demand is expected to increase off the back of the expanding…
It’s phosphate takeover time for Australian players. First, Oman-owned Mawarid Mining has almost certainly grasped a marine phosphate project off the coast of Namibia. Second, a Canadian gold miner has entered the race for a phosphate project in the centre of Australia. The Sandpiper phosphate project, 12km southwest of Walvis Bay, Namibia, has had a contentious history. It was jointly owned by two Australian companies, UCL Resources (ASX:UCL) and Minemakers (MAK), the latter also owning the huge Wonarah phosphate deposit in Australia’s Northern Territory. There was a long drawn-out battle as each of the Namibian project partners tried to take…
This sign went up outside the Caishikou Department Store in Beijing last week: “No gold bars are available. Customers who have paid can pick up their bars in one week”. That store is Beijing’s largest gold retailer, and last week it ran out of the yellow metal. So not everyone is dumping gold. In fact, investors in China stampeded last week when the price fell well beneath $1400/oz. According to China Daily, one buyer emerging from the store said “I couldn’t wait to buy gold. Many of my colleagues and friends have already made their purchases”. The newspaper said a…
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Europe — and Germany in particular — can start to plan for a nearby source of rare earths, and HREE especially. This is one of the implications of the milestone reached this week at Tasman Metals (TSX.V:TSM, Frankfurt:T61, NYSE-MKT:TAS). As reported here, Tasman has now been granted its mining lease for the Norra Karr heavy rare earth project in Sweden. This gives the company full mineral rights for an initial 25 years (although Norra Karr has an estimated mine life of at least 40 years); the rights can be renewed in 10-year increments if the mine is in operation. Moreover,…
