January 20, 2012

Trading places: rare earth prices plummet while rare earth miners rocket in 2012

The share price performance of those non-Chinese rare earth miners closest to production – Molycorp in the US, Australia's Lynas and Great Western Minerals in South Africa – is in…

January 20, 2012

Gold for the week down in euros, up in dollars amid ‘significantly reduced physical market activity

Wholesale market gold bullion prices in dollars dropped to US$1,646 an ounce Friday lunchtime in London – down 1.4% on yesterday's high – as China prepared for the week-long Lunar…

January 20, 2012

China’s copper output hits record 5.18 mln tons in 2011

China, the world's largest copper consumer, produced a record 5.18 million metric tons of copper last year, 14% more than in 2010, according to the latest statistics.

January 18, 2012

Due to European debt worries Oyu Tolgoi gets an additional US$1.8 billion shoring up

Perceiving a cloudy future for world markets, Ivanhoe Mines (NYSE:IVN) announced that they had negotiated an additional US$1.8 billion bridge financing for Oyu Tolgoi.

January 18, 2012

China’s homegrown coal to lose favor

China's domestically made coal may lose its competitive advantage to imported coal by 2015, prompting Chinese companies to step up purchases of foreign coal, according to a report by Wood…

January 18, 2012

Will China unleash more stimulus and boost gold prices?

On Tuesday, China reported GDP growth of 8.9 percent in the last quarter of 2011, which is the slowest growth increase in more than two years.

January 18, 2012

BHP sees record iron ore output

BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) (BLT.L), the world's biggest mining company, forecast record iron ore production this year after quarterly output jumped by a fifth, shrugging off predictions that growth in top…

January 17, 2012

New China system hopes to break iron ore monopoly

China has launched a rival online iron ore trading platform it hopes will allow it to weaken the monopoly of Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.

January 17, 2012

Gold bounces to 5-week highs as euro, commodities gain

Gold was up 1.1% at $1,662.40/oz on Tuesday, its highest climb in five weeks, as German economic data boosted the euro and stocks and commodities were lifted by Chinese trade…

January 17, 2012

Goldman Sachs reckons copper to be boosted by China growth pick-up

Re-accelerating Chinese growth will make for better base metals markets - notably copper - say Goldman Sachs analysts