According to the story, the area which is home to the largest tract of temperate rainforest in the southern hemisphere, along with Aborignial archeological sites, also has rich deposits of iron ore, tungsten, tin and copper.

The prospect of a mining boom in the economically depressed area is both tantalizing and worrying. One company, Venture Minerals' Mount Lindsay tin and tungsten project, envisions a large scale open-pit mine. The Australian quotes a company spokesperson and a campaigner for the Tarkine National Coalition giving opposing views on the project:

"The Mount Lindsay pit would be 1.5km by 220m deep, but the larger impact is often from the rock dumps and tailings dams," TNC campaign co-ordinator Scott Jordan tells Inquirer.

"So the combined size of the entire lease and that impact zone is the equivalent of 420 Melbourne Cricket Grounds and the depth of the pit itself would be twice the height of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. And this is just one of 10 projects. Venture alone has two other mine proposals and 37km still to drill. Once they have that processing hub they are able to develop open-cut mines across the region."

However, Venture Minerals accuses the TNC of exaggeration. "Mount Lindsay is located in an established mining district with more than 120 years of mining history," a company spokesman says.

"At full production, Mount Lindsay has the potential to deliver $250 million of annual revenue … (and) direct employment of 500 to 1000 people during the mine development phase, and 200-plus long term."

Continue reading at The Australian (sub required)

Image from ABC Bullion

A 1,000 gram gold bar with a tungsten core was bought by a scrap dealer's staff in the United Kingdom, reports ABC Bullion.

Visually, the bar appeared sound; however, the dealer noted that the bar was underweight by two grams. A test with a hand-held XRF found the bar at 99.998% AU, and the bar had original certificate.

Pictures of the bars reveal that some ingenuity would have been required to insert the tungsten since the gold bar is so thin. Tungsten bars can be found on eBay.

According to conspiracy-minded, this discovery is just the tip of the iceberg. SilverDoctors wonders how many gold bars held by governments are actually salted.

Felix Salmon, financial blogger at Reuters, weighs the larger question of whether this discovery is a mark against the very thing that supposedly make gold superior to fiat currency.

"Any store of value has problems, be it fiat currency or sovereign debt or bitcoins," writes Salmon.

"This latest discovery just goes to show that the problems with gold aren’t just the obvious ones surrounding things like the risk that the price of gold might plunge. There are non-obvious ones, too, which have the potential to be even bigger."

ASX-listed Wolf Minerals (WLF) (not to be confused with Woulfe Mining, which also has a tungsten project, in South Korea) has successfully sourced half the money needed to develop the mine in the southwest of England, reports the Ivybridge & South Brent Gazette.

The £55 million in loans were obtained from UniCredit Bank AG, ING Bank N.V., and Caterpillar Finance SARL.

The funds will be used to construct the mine, located 5 km from Plymouth, based on a feasibility study completed in May of last year, Wolf stated in a press release.

The rest of the money will be sourced from the sale of shares and from contracts purchased for the mine's tungsten, according to the Gazette. Work has already started on a 650-metre stretch of road needed to put the mine back into production. Hemerdon contains the world's fourth largest supply of tungsten, an extremely hard metal used mainly used in the manufacture of cemented carbides and light bulbs.

Photo of drilling on the Hemerdon property is by Wolf Minerals

The DRC, home to the world's largest cobalt resource and second globally in terms of copper deposits, has just emerged from a fiercely contested and disputed presidential election that saw Kabila re-elected, but leaving his camp without a sufficient majority in parliament.

Bloomberg reports Augustin Katumba Mwanke, the former governor of copper-rich Katanga province, was seen by many analysts and diplomats as the power behind the throne:

“The death of Augustin Katumba Mwanke will have serious repercussions for the Kabila regime and in particular for the mining sector,” Wilson, senior consultant at africapractice, said by e-mail today.

“His removal from the political scene will encourage a power struggle among politicians keen to fill the void.”

Reuters reports Katumba was also a central figure during negotiations for the $6 billion minerals-for-infrastructure deal with China:

"Every major player in the mining sector has negotiated with him or through him, and his death will reshape power dynamics in the sector," Africa Practice's Wilson said.

"It creates uncertainty for projects reliant on his continued political support, and more broadly across the sector."

The FT reports Mwanke is closely associated with the culture of corruption in the country that seems to be in a perpetual state of war:

Mr Mwanke was named in a 2002 report by a UN panel of experts on Congo as an illegal minerals profiteer and recommended for sanctions that included a travel ban and assets freeze. While he was subsequently removed him from all official functions, he maintained his grip on Congo’s vast resource investments and his political influence.

Many companies doing business in the DRC have burned their fingers.

At the start of the year following a dispute with the DRC government over expropriation of one of its key assets, First Quantum Minerals sold out completely from the country.

The Vancouver-based copper miner sold its Kolwezi tailings project along with the Frontier and Lonshi mines and related exploration interests for $1.25 billion, about half the value some analysts put on the projects before the DRC government stepped in.

The deal is in the final stages of completion and it is uncertain if it would be affected by the death of Katumba. Canadian Business describes how First Quantum was fleeced after being investigated for “suspected widescale misconduct” by the DRC government:

Its courts, which are not independent, slapped a stinging US$12-billion judgment on the company.

The government transferred the properties for nominal sums to close associates of DRC president Joseph Kabila, who promptly flipped them for significant profits; Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC), a large London-based company dominated by Kazakh owners, paid just US$175 million for the Kolwezi project, which cost First Quantum nearly $800 million to purchase and construct.

In the US financial reforms signed into law in July last year was a provision on conflict minerals, particularly from the DRC. The LA Times opines:

In an effort to choke off funding for the armed thugs and rebel militias that have killed more than 5 million people and turned Congo into the rape capital of the world, the new law will require thousands of U.S. companies to disclose whether their products contain minerals from rebel-controlled mines.

Tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold are essential to the manufacture of cellphones, laptop computers, digital cameras and other products.

It is only in recent years, thanks to public-awareness campaigns by groups such as the Enough Project, that American consumers have begun to understand that the gadgets adding convenience to their lives are often the byproducts of forced labor, sexual violence and mass murder.

MINING.com in January wrote that as attractive deposits become harder and harder to find in traditional markets miners are pushing the limits of the political risk they are willing to take on. Read more on how gold diggers are exploring the final frontiers.

Image of simulated plane crash by Tomasz Szymanski / Shutterstock.com

Woulfe says that its second phase of drilling and further historical data compilation at the previously mined project in South Korea enabled it to increase indicated resources by a factor of 2.75 which would support the initial 10 years of mining.

Production at the 100%-owned property is scheduled to commence in the first half of 2012. The mine would produce about 4,000 tonnes of tungsten worth $180 million per year.

The company also owns the Muguk gold-silver mine, formerly South Korea's largest gold mine.

Full press release below:

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwire – Nov. 17, 2011) - Woulfe Mining Corp. (TSX VENTURE:WOF)(OTCQX:WFEMF)(FRANKFURT:OZ4) ("Woulfe" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has negotiated the purchase of the 2% net smelter royalty retained on the Sangdong tungsten-molybedenum project in South Korea from the vendor, Se Woo Mining Co. Ltd., for CDN$3.5 million, of which $500,000 was paid on execution of the agreement and the balance of which is payable by December 19, 2011. In addition, the Company negotiated an amendment to the acquisition agreement originally dated October 9, 2006 in respect of the Sangdong project, such that the final outstanding 30% interest in the mining titles shall vest to the Company immediately as part of the completion of the payments noted above. As a result of the foregoing, the Company will hold a 100% interest in the Sangdong project. Woulfe will make the payments from working capital.

"The agreement with Se Woo concludes all remaining obligations under the purchase agreement for the Sangdong mine and more significantly buying the 2% NSR (Net Smelter Royalty) is beneficial for shareholders. As the company is focused on development next year, it is important to secure as much value from the project for our shareholders," stated Brian Wesson, President, CEO and Director of Woulfe. "Woulfe's board and management agreed that consolidation of all aspects of the title are particularly important at this time. Based on forward projections of the NSR, we have been able to negotiate a very fair purchase based on cooperation from Se Woo Mining."

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Woulfe Mining Corp.

Brian Wesson, President, CEO and Director

About Woulfe Mining Corp.

Woulfe Mining Corp. is a TSX-V listed company with a diversified portfolio of mining licenses for tungsten, molybdenum, gold, base metals and uranium-vanadium in South Korea.

The Company's current projects include the Sangdong tungsten-molybdenum mine, historically, one of the largest tungsten mines in the world; the Muguk gold-silver mine, formerly South Korea's largest gold mine, as well as a number of other properties with significant known mineralization and excellent regional exploration potential.

Woulfe has high expectations for near-term, low-cost production. The company has assembled a highly skilled, in-country, bilingual technical team and a board of directors with an outstanding track record of success.

Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. We have made certain assumptions about the forward-looking statements and information and even though our management believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such statements or information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statement or information will prove to be accurate. Furthermore, should one or more of the risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements or information. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, among others, the following: commodity price volatility; discrepancies between actual and estimated production, mineral reserves and resources and metallurgical recoveries; mining operational and development risk; litigation risks; regulatory restrictions, including environmental regulatory restrictions and liability; risks of sovereign investment; currency fluctuations; speculative nature of mineral exploration; global economic climate; dilution; share price volatility; competition; loss of key employees; additional funding requirements.

There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements or information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements or information contained herein. Except as required by law, we do not expect to update forward-looking statements and information continually as conditions change and you are referred to the full discussion of the Company's business contained in the Company's reports filed with the appropriate regulatory authorities.

Surprisingly rare earths used in green technology and defence do not top the list but comes in at number five. Antimony, extracted mainly from stibnite (pictured), widely used for fireproofing is most at risk. The platinum group metals (auto catalysts) hold the second spot while niobium used in touch screens and scanners and tungsten for cutting tools are also at risk of supply disruption as a result of increased competition among the world's growing economies, political instability, resource nationalism, along with events such as strikes and accidents. China is the number one producer of 50% of the 52 chemicals on the list and produces 75% of the world's antimony.

China supplies over three-quarters of the world total of antimony with the remainder coming from Russia, South Africa, Tajikistan and Bolivia. The platinum group metals are concentrated in South Africa and Zimbabwe while China produces 95% of the world's rare earths elements. MINING.com reported last week how the world is scrambling for rare earths after China latest crackdown on its industry sent prices rocketing.

Click here for the complete list from MineralsUK.

Image of stibnite ore from which most antimony, a native element, is extracted.