Financial News on Metals and Mining

Metals, rare earth metals and the mining industry. Wikipedia: Mining Industry

• The price of gold and related stocks are falling for a second day. The price of gold has declined 8% from recent highs, from $4398 to $4053.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 22 October 2025

• Shares of rare earth metals companies (including Alcoa) soar after a mega-deal between the USA and Australia to slash dependence on Zhōngguó
  - Zero Hedge, 21 October 2025

• Can a rare-earth minerals deal between the USA and Australia reduce the control of Zhōngguó over this critical minerals trade?
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 21 October 2025

• Exports of rare earth metals from Zhōngguó to the USA decline for the second month, reversing a brief recovery
  - Comcast's CNBC, 21 October 2025

• Can a rare-earth minerals deal between the USA and Australia reduce the control of Zhōngguó over this critical minerals trade?
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 21 October 2025

• The largest metals refinery in India just ran out of silver for the first time in history
  - Zero Hedge, 20 October 2025

• Another AI-related bubbling: shares of Cleveland-Cliffs jump more than 20% as the steelmaker is reviewing two properties it owns for the presence of rare-earth metals. Presence, not actual minable discoveries.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 20 October 2025

• Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs jump more than 20% as the steelmaker is reviewing two properties it owns for the presence of rare-earth metals. Presence, not actual minable discoveries.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 20 October 2025

• One gold and silver dealer is worried about 'backwardation' - when spot prices exceed futures prices. It is a warning that the supply of physical gold and silver is diminishing. "It is he market exposing the shortages of physical silver, the frailty of the paper promises."
  - Zero Hedge, 19 October 2025

• The shares of gold mining companies are rising in price, but increasing less than the rise in the price of gold
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 18 October 2025

• The casino stock market: rare earth mining stocks plummet in prices, after the Defense Department cancels a high-profile tender to buy cobalt - at least for now - cutting short a torrid rally that had lifted the sector over the past several months.
  - Zero Hedge, 16 October 2025

• Europe in the rare earth 'trap': up to 4 million jobs in Deutschland at risk as Zhōngguó restricts exports
  - Zero Hedge, 16 October 2025

• Trump apparently wants to 'Make Zhōngguó Great Again". Trump's efforts to destroy the electric vehicle market/industry in the USA will allow Zhōngguó to cement ts dominance over not only global EV sales but also the supply chains for batteries and critical rare-earth minerals used in their production. Why? [Trump hates renewable energy and his national socialist industrial policy is to favor the oil/natural gas/gasoline industry - the past.]
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 16 October 2025

• Shares of rare earth mineral companies rise sharply after the Defense Department is reported to preparing to spend $1 billion buying critical minerals
  - Zero Hedge, 13 October 2025

• Zhōngguó is "not afraid of trade war", accuses the USA of a "double standard" for retaliation over Zhōngguó's restrictions on the exports of rare earth minerals/metals in light of Trump's restrictions on the exports of semiconductor products from the USA
  - Comcast's CNBC, 12 October 2025

• Zhōngguó tells Trump to back off his threats, and warns it can retailiate as well
  - Bloomberg, 12 October 2025

• Zhōngguó urges the USA to "correct its wrong actions", and put trade talks back on track
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 12 October 2025

• Aluminum could become the next popular metal after copper. Demand is set to be boosted by electrification, while supply is constrained by rising power needs.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 October 2025

• Bitcoin drops 10%, and ethereum drop 11%, and other cryptocurrencies dropped, after Trump said that the USA would impose a new tariff of 100% on imports from Zhōngguó "over and above any tax/tariff that they are currently paying", starting on November 1st. The move is in retaliation for new export controls that Zhōngguó imposed on rare earths minerals.
  - Barclay's The Telegraph, 10 October 2025

• Copper prices drop 5% after Trump said that the USA would impose a new tariff of 100% on imports from Zhōngguó "over and above any tax/tariff that they are currently paying", starting on November 1st. The move is in retaliation for new export controls that Zhōngguó imposed on rare earths minerals.
  - Bloomberg, 10 October 2025

• Trump threatens to impose a "massive increase of taxes/tariffs" on products imported from Zhōngguó into the USA, due to export controls that Zhōngguó is imposing on its exports of rare earth minerals/metals
  - The Guardian, 10 October 2025

• Trump threatens to impose a "massive increase of taxes/tariffs" on products imported from Zhōngguó into the USA, due to export controls that Zhōngguó is imposing on its exports of rare earth minerals/metals
  - Comcast's CNBC, 10 October 2025

• Trump threatens to impose a "massive increase of taxes/tariffs" on products imported from Zhōngguó into the USA, due to export controls that Zhōngguó is imposing on its exports of rare earth minerals/metals
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 October 2025

• Zhōngguó imposes a set of new export controls, including a "major upgrade" to restrictions on exports of rare earth minerals/metals. Wider restrictions on rare earths, other items intended to give Beijing greater leverage in coming negotiations with the USA.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 October 2025

• Zhōngguó imposes a set of new export controls, including a "major upgrade" to restrictions on exports of rare earth minerals/metals. Wider restrictions on rare earths, other items intended to give Beijing greater leverage in coming negotiations with the USA.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 10 October 2025

• Glencore gets a socialist government subsidy for its copper smelter/refinery in Australia. The Swiss commodities giant has been losing money from the smelter and refinery because of an oversupply in smelting capacity and high energy costs in Australia.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 October 2025

• Shares of rare earth minerals/metals companies surge after Zhōngguó tightens its control of rare earth exports. Ramaco Resources soared 12%, Energy Fuels surged nearly 8%, USA Rare Earth jumped more than 7%, and MP Materials rallied more than 6%. Lithium Americas popped more than 4% and Trilogy Metals rose more than 6%.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 09 October 2025

• New controls on the exports of rare earth minerals/metals from Zhōngguó deepens EU anxiety on industry and support for Ukraine
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 09 October 2025

• The economic power of Trump's nationalist socialist industrial policies: dahres of Trilogy Metals soar over 200% after the USA acquires partial ownership, another partially-state-owned company similar to the fully-state-owned companies of Communist Zhōngguó
  - Comcast's CNBC, 07 October 2025

• Trump continues his nationalist socialist industrial policies, ordering the Administration to take a 10% in Trilogy Metals, a minerals explorer in Canada, as part of a $35.6 million investment to secure critical energy and mining projects in Alaska
  - Zero Hedge, 06 October 2025

• Shares of Critical Metals soar over 60% after Trump continues his nationalist socialist industrial policies, ordering the Administration to investigate buying a stake in the mining company
  - Thomson's Reuters, 06 October 2025

• Two mining firms from Zhōngguó (Sino-Metals Leach Zambia and NFC Africa Mining) are sued over toxic acid spills in Zambia, posing a dilemma for the government of Zambia. A damages compensation lawsuit seeking $80 billion leaves the government of Nambia trying to balance good relations with Zhōngguó, with the needs of local communities. The lawsuit alleges that a tailings dam wall collapse in February released acidic waste into streams, rivers and farms near the town of Kitwe, about 285km (180 miles) north of the capital Lusaka.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 06 October 2025

• Advisers to Pakistani army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir proposed to USA officials the construction of a new port on the Arabian Sea near the borders with Afghanistan and Iran. The plan envisions US investors constructing and managing a terminal in Pasni, a coastal town in Gwadar District, Balochistan. The site is described as a gateway to Pakistan's vital mineral reserves.
  - Zero Hedge, 04 October 2025

• Zhōngguó halts all new BHP iron ore cargoes. China Mineral Resources Group has temporarily halted purchases of all dollar-denominated seaborne iron ore cargoes from BHP Group vessels. The suspension highlights Beijing's efforts to exert greater influence in global iron ore markets, shifting power away from global miners (BHP, Rio Tinto, Vale) toward Zhōngguó's steel industry.
  - Zero Hedge, 01 October 2025

• A breakthrough hydride ion battery: scientists in Zhōngguó claim it has 6 times the capacity of lithium ion batteries. Rechargeable, room-temperature stable battery possible using rare earth-based battery electrolyte harnessing hydride ions.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 25 September 2025

• Is a rumored national socialist development fund for rare earth metals in the USA coming too late to catch up with Zhōngguó? A reported US$5 billion [nationalist socialist industrial planning] fund to secure the rare earth supply for the USA is probably not enough to shake the dominance of Zhōngguó, analysts said.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 24 September 2025

• The US Trade and Development Agency will invest in a project in Zambia in bid to loosen Zhōngguó's control of critical minerals. The USTDA will provide a US$1.4 million grant to Metalex Africa (a subsidiary of USA-based Metalex Commodities) to fund feasibility study on expanding the copper and cobalt mine.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 19 September 2025

• Why plans by Bharat and the USA to tap the rare earth minerals of Myanmar are fraught with risks. The two countries face risks from the civil war in Myanmar, logistical challenges, and a potential pushback by rare earth giant Zhōngguó.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 18 September 2025

• A new nationalist socialist industrial policy from Trump: the administration is considering a https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/rare-earth-miner-shares-surge-after-report-us-weighing-5-billion-mining-investment-fund.
  - Zero Hedge, 16 September 2025

• How the USA will try to disrupt the dominance of Zhōngguó in the rare earths metal industry. Zhōngguó controls 85% of the industry, and the USA Department of Defense wants to reduce that level of control.
  - Barron's, 13 September 2025

• Barrick sells last gold mine in Canada for up to $1.09 billion. Barrick Mining is selling its Hemlo gold mine in Canada to investment firm Carcetti Capital for up to $1.09 billion as the metals giant streamlines its portfolio.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 September 2025

• Is the rare earth's metal policies of Zhōngguó frustrating US upgrades to the F-35 stealth jet? Beijing retains leverage as the USA's modernisation would cover weapons and electronic warfare systems, communications equipment and more.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 11 September 2025

• The mining megadeal shows the world is crazy for copper. The metal is at the nexus of two new megatrends: artificial intelligence and rising military spending.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 September 2025

• Two mining giants, Anglo American of Britain and Teck Resources of Canada, agreed on Tuesday to merge into a $53 billion corporation, creating a powerhouse copper producer in a deal that could reshape the industry. Previously, Teck had sold its coal operations to Glencore.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 September 2025

• Two mining giants, Anglo American of Britain and Teck Resources of Canada, agreed on Tuesday to merge into a $53 billion corporation, creating a powerhouse copper producer in a deal that could reshape the industry. Previously, Teck had sold its coal operations to Glencore.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 September 2025

• US Strategic Metals, a metals company in the USA, signed a $500 million investment deal with Pakistan. Pakistan's Frontier Works Organization - which is the Pakistan's largest miner of critical minerals - signed a memorandum of understanding with Missouri-based US Strategic Metals for collaboration plans that include setting up a poly-metallic refinery in Pakistan.
  - Associated Press, 08 September 2025

• Zhōngguó's 'silent sanctions', export controls on gallium nitride and other critical materials, holds back weapons development in the USA while allowing the military of Zhōngguó to further develop its weapons technology
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 05 September 2025

• Brazilian miner Vale said on Thursday it will invest 67 billion reais ($12.36 billion) in its mining operations in Minas Gerais state by 2030. Most of the investments will be focused on solutions to expand filtering and dry stacking of iron ore tailings.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 04 September 2025

• The USA Geological Survey proposes added potash, silicon, copper, silver, rhenium and lead to the critical minerals list
  - Zero Hedge, 26 August 2025

• Prices of two rare earth elements needed for super-strong magnets have surged to their highest in more than two years after USA miner MP Materials stopped raw material exports to leading magnet maker Zhōngguó amid rising demand
  - Thomson's Reuters, 26 August 2025

• The authoritarian Trump threatens Zhōngguó with 200% taxes/tariffs if Zhōngguó does not export rare-earth magnets to the the USA. And Trump threatens to reduce/halt shipments of airplane parts to Zhōngguó. Currently, Zhōngguó is exporting rare-earth magnets at levels seen before Zhōngguó imposed export reductions in April.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 26 August 2025

• The authoritarian Trump threatens Zhōngguó with 200% taxes/tariffs if Zhōngguó does not export rare-earth magnets to the the USA. And Trump threatens to reduce/halt shipments of airplane parts to Zhōngguó. Currently, Zhōngguó is exporting rare-earth magnets at levels seen before Zhōngguó imposed export reductions in April.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 26 August 2025

• Myanmar is shaping up to be the next front of the new 'cold war' between Zhōngguó and the USA. Zhōngguó wants to retain access to Kachin State's rare earth minerals, the USA wants to poach them, and their escalating competition over this part of Myanmar could make it the next New Cold War flashpoint.
  - Zero Hedge, 25 August 2025

• Zhōngguó on Friday announced tightened rules over the mining and processing of rare earths, extending controls to imported minerals and requiring enterprises to report the flow of the strategic materials monthly
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 23 August 2025

• Brazil wanted the help of the USA in mining its rare earth minerals. Then came political and economics on Brazil by the authoritarian Trump. Now Brazil is seeking the mining help of other countries, such as Bharat, España and Australia
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 22 August 2025

• Glencore targets 1 million tons of copper to be mined in Argentina in the next ten years
  - Thomson's Reuters, 21 August 2025

• The leading global miner BHP Group posted its weakest annual result in five years, showing the pressure from lower iron ore prices and softer steel demand from Zhōngguó. The BHP Group reported underlying attributable profit of $10.16 billion, marking a 26% drop from the prior year.
  - Benzinga, 19 August 2025

• More nationalist socialist industrial planning from the Trump administration: prices of rare earth metal jump after the socialist Defense Department establishes a price floor. That price floor, which is nearly double the current Zhōngguó-based market rate of around $60/kg, aims to incentivize domestic production of the super-strong magnets. Nice industrial planning - still sociialist.
  - Zero Hedge, 14 August 2025

• Zhōngguó has passed another milestone in its efforts to promote the global use of its currency, with the Australian metals giant Fortescue agreeing to borrow a record 14.2 billion yuan (US$1.98 billion) in a syndicated loan agreement arranged by one of the biggest state-owned banks in Zhōngguó
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 12 August 2025

• Countries in Africa have an ambitious plan to establish a 'non-circulating' currency backed by critical minerals. This would allow Africa to reduce its dependence on the USA dollar, and reduce its dependence on loans from the West.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 August 2025

• Bharat and Australia are negotiatign a strategic minerals partnership, positioning themselves as an economical alternative to Zhōngguó. Bharat has large untapped reserves of rare earth metals, and Australia has lost of processing technology and infrastructure.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 10 August 2025

• Fortescue said on Friday it had secured a private-sector syndicated term loan facility worth 14.2 billion Chinese yuan ($1.98 billion) as the Australian miner looks to support its ambitious decarbonisation plans. The mining giant said at the end of July that it was scaling back and would scrap its green hydrogen projects locally and in the USA.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 07 August 2025

• Zhōngguó is greatly restricting the exports of crucial rare earth minerals and metals to defense companies in the USA
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 August 2025

• Zhōngguó is greatly restricting the exports of crucial rare earth minerals and metals to defense companies in the USA
  - Zero Hedge, 04 August 2025

• Control of rare earth mineral mines in the state of Kachin (the northern state of Myanmar) is at the center of the civil war between regional separatists and the military government. Zhōngguó has reportedly demanded that they halt their offensive otherwise it will reduce imports of their rare earths. This could in turn destabilize global supply chains if the separatists do not comply and Zhōngguó carries through on its ultimatum since Zhōngguó has a near-monopoly on processing these resources. So the USA is trying to do a deal with the military dictatorship so that the USA can gain control over the minerals.
  - Zero Hedge, 30 July 2025

• Geologists in Zhōngguó discover a massive supply of the rare earth metal mineral, zirconium, increasing the country's reserves five-fold. Currently, Australia has the largest supplies of zirconium.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 27 July 2025

• While the Trump Administration and the Defense Department are investing/supporting strongly into the rare earth metal industry in the USA - socialist industrial planning, private sector investors are not. There are too many financial risks for projects in the USA for those investing their own monies.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 July 2025

• The European Union and Zhōngguó agree on a plan to resolve export restrictions on rare earth metals from Zhōngguó
  - Comcast's CNBC, 24 July 2025

• After Trump pledged to open international waters to mining in an executive order, The Metals Company sought U.S. permits. But other countries are raising legal concerns. The authoritarian Trump's executive order conflicts with a longstanding treaty known as the Law of the Sea, potentially exposing international partners of The Metals Company to legal risks.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 July 2025

• $600,000,000+ - A New Jersey man pleaded guilty in Oklahoma federal court to leading a theft ring that stole catalytic converters and sold them for more than $600 million to a refinery that extracted precious metals contained in the devices
  - Comcast's CNBC, 22 July 2025

• Zhōngguó has successfully restricted exported of two important metals, antimony and germanium, with exports for both down over 85%.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 21 July 2025

• The European Union depends on Rossiya and Zhōngguó for about 50% of its imports of rare earth metals
  - Zero Hedge, 18 July 2025

• Unregulated activity by mining companies based in Zhōngguó, with their mining operations in Myanmar, is creating an environmental disaster for Thailand
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 July 2025

• The Pentagon will keep making socialist investments in the critical minerals industry in the USA
  - Thomson's Reuters, 15 July 2025

• MP Materials surges 10% after Apple announces it will invest $500 million in the rare earths mining company (adding to a socialist investment by the Defense Department)
  - Zero Hedge, 15 July 2025

• MP Materials surges 10% after Apple announces it will invest $500 million in the rare earths mining company (adding to a socialist investment by the Defense Department)
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 July 2025

• Investors are investing more money in copper mines, after Trump threatens 50% taxes/tariffs on imports of copper
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 July 2025

• Ramaco Resources, the developer of what would be the first new coal mine in Wyoming in decades, is launching a potentially half-billion-dollar effort to extract rare earth metals from the fossil fuel that are crucial for tech products and military hardware
  - Associated Press, 12 July 2025

• The Flour Corporation has confirmed the feasibility of large rare earth element deposits at Ramaco Resource's Brook Mine in Wyoming. Metals profitably minable include dysprosium, neodymium, and scandium.
  - FreightWaves, 10 July 2025

• In a huge socialist investment by the USA Department of Defense, it will buy $400 million of preferred stock of MP Materials, which operates the only rare earth mineral mine in the USA in California. It shares surge 50% on the announcement.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 10 July 2025

• In a huge socialist investment by the USA Department of Defense, it will buy $400 million of preferred stock of MP Materials, which operates the only rare earth mineral mine in the USA in California. It shares surge 50% on the announcement.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 July 2025

• The USA and Europe want to obtain more rare earth metals from Africa. But countries in Africa want more than money - they want jobs for their citizens, so they are imposing restrictions on exports of rare earth metals and minerals to develop processing industries in their countries, creating jobs as well as profits.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 09 July 2025

• The USA remains "dependent" on rare earth metals from Zhōngguó. The dominance of Zhōngguó in this industry (like others such as renewable energy) is far from over.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 09 July 2025

• Zhōngguó dominates the world's rare earth metals industry. The success has been costly: soil and groundwater around processing plants are contaminated with heavy metals and radioactive materials (such as thorium). Both pose a health threat for nearby people, especially due to lead and cadmium.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 07 July 2025

• Hindustan Zinc, a subsidiary of Vedanta, plans a 5-year effort to producing rare earth minerals and metals, focusing on neodymium used in powerful magnets.
  - Mikkei Asia, 01 July 2025

• Users of rare earth magnets have to pay higher prices for rare earth metals that they have to now purchase from sources outside of Zhōngguó
  - Thomson's Reuters, 01 July 2025

• Rossiya seizes an important lithium mine in Ukraine, challenging the USA-Ukraine deal that traded USA support for access to Ukraine's mineral resources
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 28 June 2025

• How Zhōngguó could shut down auto factories around the world, because of its control over the distribution of rare earth metals
  - Comcast's CNBC, 28 June 2025

• Confusion as Trump says deal with Zhōngguó "signed" yet both sides violate terms of the economic 'ceasefire'. Zhōngguó is refusing to supply the USA with rare-earth magnets, and the USA blocks unloading of ethane at ports in Zhōngguó.
  - Zero Hedge, 27 June 2025

• Zhōngguó on Friday signaled it would approve the export of rare earth minerals to the USA, hours after White House officials said the two sides had reached a deal, in what would be a major breakthrough following weeks of negotiations over USA access to the key materials. "Zhōngguó will approve the export application of controlled items that meet the conditions in accordance with the law. The USA will cancel a series of restrictive measures taken against Zhōngguó accordingly."
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 27 June 2025

• Zhōngguó on Friday signaled it would approve the export of rare earth minerals to the USA, hours after White House officials said the two sides had reached a deal, in what would be a major breakthrough following weeks of negotiations over USA access to the key materials. "Zhōngguó will approve the export application of controlled items that meet the conditions in accordance with the law. The USA will cancel a series of restrictive measures taken against Zhōngguó accordingly."
  - Comcast's CNBC, 27 June 2025

• Zhōngguó on Friday signaled it would approve the export of rare earth minerals to the USA, hours after White House officials said the two sides had reached a deal, in what would be a major breakthrough following weeks of negotiations over USA access to the key materials. "Zhōngguó will approve the export application of controlled items that meet the conditions in accordance with the law. The USA will cancel a series of restrictive measures taken against Zhōngguó accordingly."
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 27 June 2025

• Western companies are struggling to secure approvals for rare-earth imports from authorities in Zhōngguó, despite the USA-Zhōngguó deal
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 27 June 2025

• Zhōngguó has begun issuing export licenses for rare earth metals to companies in Europe
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 27 June 2025

• Platinum surged to its highest level since 2014 as supply concerns and a wave of speculative buying jolted the market. The precious metal surged as much as 4.6%, while palladium was up more than 5% at one point.
  - Bloomberg, 26 June 2025

• Beyond the bullion: market trends in global gold production
  - S&P Global, 25 June 2025

• How war-torn Myanmar plays a critical role in rare earth metal dominance by Zhōngguó. Myanmar is one of the world's largest suppliers of rare earth ore. Most of those rare earths are sent to Zhōngguó, especially the less abundant heavy rare earth elements.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 24 June 2025

• Has Trump's illegal bombing of Iran given Zhōngguó a strategic trade advantage? Analysts say deepened involvement by the USA in the Middle East, to support Isreal, could make rare earth metals more precious, and give Zhōngguó a stronger trade position.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 23 June 2025

• Niger will nationalize a uranium mine operated by French state-affiliated firm. Niger's nationalization of the Somair mine operated by Orano comes as Niger moves away from France and seeks closer ties with Rossiya.
  - Al Jazeera, 20 June 2025

• "For Greenland, we are not necessarily interested in becoming a really great mining country.", said Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland's minister for business and mineral resources. Greenland's harsh climate, remote landscape and lack of infrastructure have all been cited as barriers to its strategic potential.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 20 June 2025

• $138,750,000 - Rio Tinto agreed to pay $138.75 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the Anglo-Australian mining giant of defrauding investors by concealing problems with its $7 billion underground expansion of the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine in Mongolia
  - Thomson's Reuters, 19 June 2025

• Greenland approves a 30-year permit for a European Union-backed project to mine molybdenum, a critical metal used in aerospace, energy and defence and on which Zhōngguó has imposed export controls.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 19 June 2025

• Battery makers in the USA declare a national emergency after Zhōngguó bans export of antimony
  - OilPrice.com, 18 June 2025

• Prices of platinum rise to new highs amid huge redemptions from ETFs. The redemptions are not outright selling of the metal, simply a transfer of the exposure to physical metals.
  - Zero Hedge, 18 June 2025

• The European Union urges Zhōngguó to address its stringent controls on the exports of rare earth metals
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 17 June 2025

• After months of soft-pedalling, the head of the European Commission, Ursula vod der Leyen, urges leaders in Europe to unite against the dominance of rare earths supply chains by Zhōngguó. She argues that Zhōngguó is not longer a developing country. "While [others] opened their market, Zhōngguó focused [on] undercutting intellectual property protections, [with] massive subsidies with the aim to dominate global manufacturing and supply chains. This is not market competition - it is distortion with intent. And it undermines our manufacturing sectors."
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 17 June 2025

• Stark images, captured from a drone by environmental campaigners and shared with the BBC, appear to show how nickel mining has stripped forests and polluted waters in one of the most biodiverse marine habitats on Earth. The Raja Ampat archipelago - a group of small islands in Indonesia's Southwest Papua Province - has been dubbed the "Amazon of the Seas". In a move that was welcomed by campaigners, the Indonesian government this week revoked permits for four out of five mining companies operating in the region. Aerial images show forest loss and sediment run-off into waters that are home to biodiverse coral reefs.
  - BBC, 14 June 2025

• SHares of MP Materials soar 17%, after the Trump administration considers prioritizing rare earth metals products in the USA
  - Zero Hedge, 13 June 2025

• Bharat has asked state-run miner IREL to suspend a 13-year-old agreement on rare earth exports to Japan and to safeguard supplies for domestic needs. In a recent meeting with auto and other industry executives, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal asked IREL to stop its exports of rare earths, mainly neodymium, a key material used in magnets for electric vehicle motors.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 13 June 2025

• Bharat acts to commercialize its rare earth reserves. Experts say it could become an alternative to Zhōngguó.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 13 June 2025

• Editorial: Trump has no trade strategy to deal with Zhōngguó. Retreating tax/tariffs to where they were a few months ago is a victory for Zhōngguó that shows the negotiating leverage Zhōngguó has over the USA.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 June 2025

• Zhōngguó's control of rare earth minerals and metals dictated a path toward a trade truce with the USA. Control of minerals used in electronics has given Zhōngguó powerful leverage in trade negotiations with the USA.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 June 2025

• Zhōngguó is putting a six-month limit on rare-earth export licenses for automakers and manufacturers in the USA, giving Beijing leverage if trade tensions flare up again while adding to uncertainty for American industry.
  - Zero Hedge, 11 June 2025

• The chokehold of Zhōngguó on an obscure mineral threatens the militiaries of the West. Zhōngguó produces the entire world's supply of samarium, a rare earth metal that the United States and its allies need to rebuild inventories of fighter jets, missiles and other hardware. Samarium magnets can withstand temperatures hot enough to melt lead without losing their magnetic force. They are essential for withstanding the heat of fast-moving electric motors in cramped spaces like the nose cones of missiles.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 June 2025

• The need of Zhōngguó for specialty chemicals from the USA, is greater than the USA need for rare earth metals from Zhōngguó
  - Zero Hedge, 09 June 2025

• Metallic 'mayhem': platinum pops, silver squeezes, gold brews. Platinum's breakout is stealing the show -- +15% and rising. Silver keeps grinding higher post-breakout, while gold coils in a tight range. Momentum is building... do investors start chasing gold next?
  - Zero Hedge, 09 June 2025

• Zhōngguó supports an investigation into pollution in the Mekong River, after a report accuses mining companies of polluting the river. Media reports and activists have said mining companies based in Zhōngguó that are operating in Myanmar are responsible for pollution downriver in Thailand.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 09 June 2025

• Zhōngguó issues export licenses to suppliers of rare earth metals to the top 3 automakers in the USA
  - Thomson's Reuters, 06 June 2025

• The telephone call between Trump and Xi isn't enough to resolve the looming shortage of critical minerals from Zhōngguó, for companies in the USA
  - Comcast's CNBC, 06 June 2025

• Zhōngguó will allow limited exports of rare earth metals, as shortages continue
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 June 2025

• The telephone call between Trump and Xi fails to spark much enthusiasm in factories in Zhōngguó. Disillusioned by Trump's shifting policy positions, many manufacturers want to see clearer signals before they make major moves.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 06 June 2025

• Bharat plans incentives for the manufacturing of rare earth magnets as supply threats increase
  - Thomson's Reuters, 05 June 2025

• Industry in Europe is under siege: Zhōngguó deploys rare earth metals as an economic weapon. Export restrictions on rare earths are now Zhōngguó's latest tactic to break down trade barriers in Europe and push back against escalating pressure from the USA.
  - Zero Hedge, 05 June 2025

• The reductions in exports of rare earth metals from Zhōngguó is hurting the automobile industry around the world
  - Thomson's Reuters, 05 June 2025

• The automobile industry sounds the alarm as restrictions on rare earth metals from Zhōngguó start to hurt production of automobiles
  - Comcast's CNBC, 05 June 2025

• Since early April, Zhōngguó has stopped almost all shipments of critical minerals that are needed for cars, robots, wind turbines, jet fighters and other technologies
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 June 2025

• The dependence of the US on rare earth magnets from Zhōngguó is causing shortages. The USA allowed its rare earth metals industry to move to Zhōngguó. The USA could now face severe economic disruptions as Zhōngguó limits crucial supplies of rare earth metals.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 June 2025

• Automakers race for workaround to Zhōngguó's stranglehold on rare-earth magnets. Major manufacturers, fearful they will have to shut down assembly lines, are considering moving some production of parts to Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 June 2025

• Minable pure quartz, the 'gem' of Spruce Pine, North Carolina, that is a vital component of the world's technology. No other place on Earth has as much or as minable pure quartz as Spruce Pine, in western North Carolina. Trump's trade war could encourage other countries to develop their own sources of high-purity quartz.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 02 June 2025

• The trade truce between the USA and Zhōngguó risks falling apart over exports of rare-earth metals. Their trade talks in Geneva earlier this month hinged on Beijing agreeing to resume crucial mineral exports. Now Zhōngguó is slow-walking the concession, and the pact is in jeopardy.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 31 May 2025

• Miners scramble to move into copper, with 2 companies to consider buying their stocks. The Big Two - BHP Group and Rio Tinto - and everyone else are switching into copper, whose price has jumped. That takes time, and lots of it.
  - Barron's, 31 May 2025

• Gold miners eschew hedging to lap up sky-high prices. Prices might have never been higher, but gold miners show few signs of rushing to lock in any of the recent gains.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 May 2025

• Shares of MAC Copper soar over 20% after the copper miner agreed to be purchased by Harmony Gold for $1.03 billion. Shares of Harmony dropped about 9%.
  - Investopedia, 27 May 2025

• Pakistan intensifies its crackdown on an insurgency in Balochistan after a deadly bombing of a bus. Pakistan also needs to end the rebellion to attract foreign funds to its vast reserves of copper and critical metals.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 24 May 2025

• The 'Powering Up America' theme has primarily focused on the surge of AI data centers being plugged into the nation's electric grid to fuel chatbots and the digital economy. But what's often overlooked are other major electrification trends, like on-shoring massive aluminum smelters, that will soon compete with AI data centers for power on strained grids. According to the U.S. Aluminum Association, producing one metric ton of aluminum takes nearly 15,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity. A modern smelter with a capacity of 750,000 tons, or about the size of the new Oklahoma smelter that will be online at the end of the decade, consumes more electricity than Boston.
  - Zero Hedge, 23 May 2025

• More rare-earth ore processing plants are being built outside of Zhōngguó. The USA and Brazil are among countries building capacity to mine and refine metals for EVs and smartphones.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 May 2025

• Jewelers and investors in Zhōngguó imported the most platinum in a year last month, as platinum's enhanced its attractiveness over surging and volatile gold.
  - Bloomberg, 20 May 2025

• Aluminum prices declined 1.3% as a surge in exchange stockpiles exacerbated a risk-off mood seen in the wake of Moody's downgrade of USA debt and mixed economic data from Zhōngguó.
  - Bloomberg, 19 May 2025

• Zhōngguó has steadily expanded its global trade footprint and now surpasses the USA as the leading trading partner in many regions around the world. By 2023, Zhōngguó had become the leading trading partner of every country in Africa.
  - Zero Hedge, 19 May 2025

• Zhōngguó deploys the largest fleet of driverless mining trucks in the world
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 15 May 2025

• How Zhōngguó exploits its advantages with rare earth minerals when dealing with the USA. Until the Zhōngguó-USA trade war abates and Zhōngguó eases more rare earth export controls, buyers in the USA are expected to take a skittish long-term view of sourcing from Zhōngguó.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 14 May 2025

• Demand for cobalt will rise faster than supply, allowing the market to reduce the 2024 surplus in coming years and swing to a deficit in the early 2030s, the Cobalt Institute said in a research on Wednesday. A big factor is the mining plans of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which imposed a ban on exports in late February to reduce market glut.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 13 May 2025

• A toxic pit could be a gold mine for rare-earth elements. Mining continues at the Continental Pit in Butte, Montana. Nearby is the Berkeley Pit, a site for acid mine drainage that poses an opportunity for extracting valuable metals.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 May 2025

• The Trump administration will rush the approval of permits for a mine in Utah to extract uranium and vanadium
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 May 2025

• The Trump administration will rush the approval of permits for a mine in Utah to extract uranium and vanadium
  - Zero Hedge, 13 May 2025

• A deposit of lithium ores valued at $1.5 trillion has been discovered in the region of the McDermitt Caldera in Oregon. Some geologists say these ancient volcanic sediments could contain between 20 and 40 million metric tons of lithium.
  - Earth.com, 09 May 2025

• The parliament of Ukraine ratifies a minerals deal with the USA in hopes of securing future weapons
  - Zero Hedge, 09 May 2025

• Quarterly earnings for Barrick beat expectations, but a dispute in Mali creates worries in the new year. Record prices for gold and gains for copper buoyed earnings, but an ongoing clash with Mali's military junta cast a shadow over Barrick Mining's stronger than expected financial performance.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 May 2025

• Zhōngguó is on a charm campaign in Africa to rally opposition to the "bullying" of the USA under Trump. While Trump targets critical minerals and specific nations, Zhōngguó expands influence through bilateral and multilateral engagement, according to an analyst.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 06 May 2025

• How Zhōngguó is reusing the batteries from dying electric vehicles and solar panels. "There is huge potential in the business of new-energy waste, because new energy is where Zhōngguó and the world are going." Zhōngguó has created the state-owned China Resources Recycling Group to build a nationwide recycling network for products from electronics to retired wind and solar equipment.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 13 May 2025

• Deep in an abandoned gold mine in Canada, a toxic legacy lurks. Warming permafrost is fanning fears in a town in Canada that tons of lethal arsenic could seep into a nearby river system and spread all the way to the Arctic.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 05 May 2025

• The top five producers of silver in the world are: Mexico, Zhōngguó, Peru, Chile and then Bolivia
  - Zero Hedge, 03 May 2025

• A new startup called Conifer has unveiled a low-cost, easily manufactured motor using magnets made from everyday iron. These electric motors could help break the world's dependence on Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 03 May 2025

• Ukraine lacks the capacity to supplant the critical minerals supplies of Zhōngguó. Most of the mineral resources in Ukraine are in areas controlled by Rossiya, and even with the mining of ores, about 90% of all rare earth refining is performed in Zhōngguó.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 03 May 2025

• The USA has a deal to access minerals in Ukraine, but accessing them will not be easy. The resources could be plentiful but will be difficult and expensive to extract -- even without a war.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 May 2025

• Ukraine and the USA sign a minerals deal. Each will contribute 50-50 to a fund that develops mineral resources in Ukraine, and each will get 50% of the profits
  - Zero Hedge, 30 April 2025

• With a new minerals deal, Trump ties the USA to the future of Ukraine
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 30 April 2025

• The rare-earth mineral dysprosium, used for magnets in electric-vehicle motors, is among exports that Zhōngguó slowed exports of, in response to Trump's tax/tariff trade war
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 28 April 2025

• Could a 'minerals for security' deal between Congo and the USA threaten the mining dominance of Zhōngguó in Africa?
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 27 April 2025

• Trump has ordered the government of the USA to take a major step toward mining vast tracts of the ocean floor, a move that is opposed by nearly all other nations, which consider international waters off limits to this kind of industrial activity
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 26 April 2025

• Rare earth minerals from Zhōngguó threaten the supply chains of the USA military. Sources of rare earth minerals in Zhōngguó account for the majority of world output of five essential elements used in 80,000 American weapons parts.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 26 April 2025

• The efforts of Pakistan to build up its mining industry: an opportunity toe equal the success of Indonesia in mining nickel? A landmark deal unlocking vast copper and gold reserves has Pakistan eyeing a transformative economic shift.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 26 April 2025

• The USA can produce rare earth metals if Zhōngguó permanently stops its exports, but it will take many years to build the supply chains in the USA and require huge financial investments
  - Zero Hedge, 24 April 2025

• Elon Musk warns a shortage of rare earth magnet may delay the building of Tesla's robots. The shortage is due to export restrictions imposed by Zhōngguó on rare earth minerals, due to Trump's tax/tariff trade which Musk supported.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 April 2025

• Elon Musk warns a shortage of rare earth magnet may delay the building of Tesla's robots. The shortage is due to export restrictions imposed by Zhōngguó on rare earth minerals, due to Trump's tax/tariff trade which Musk supported.
  - Zero Hedge, 23 April 2025

• Zhōngguó asks South Korea not to supply products using rare earth metals to defense companies in the USA
  - Thomson's Reuters, 22 April 2025

• Copper rises to a two-week high as a weak USA dollar boosts metal prices
  - Bloomberg, 22 April 2025

• The latest controls on exports of rare earth minerals from Zhōngguó, due to Trump's tax/tariff trade war, is causing chaos in automobile supply chains
  - Murdoch's New York Post, 21 April 2025

• The USA recycles few electric vehicle batteries, but doing so would make the USA less dependent on Zhōngguó for lithium-ion batteries
  - The Hill, 20 April 2025

• The mine is in Brazil. It is owned by investors from the USA. But the mine is contracted to sell nearly all of its minerals to companies in Zhōngguó.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 19 April 2025

• About a sixth of global cropland is likely polluted with toxic heavy metals. As many as 1.4 billion people reside in areas with soil dangerously polluted with compounds like arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, nickel and lead. Many of these persistent metals can jeopardize biodiversity, water quality, crop yields and food safety, via bioaccumulation in farm animals.
  - The Hill, 18 April 2025

• Trump will approve a land swap between Rio Tinto (with its white executives) and BHP (with its white executives) to build one of the largest copper mines in the world, despite concerns from non-white Native Americans (where the San Carlos Apaches in Arizona worship) that it would destroy a site of religious value.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 17 April 2025

• How Zhōngguó took over control of the global rare earths industry
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 April 2025

• Not just rare-earth minerals: the USA obtains many critical minerals from Zhōngguó such as bismuth, antimony, graphite and barite
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 April 2025

• The halting by Zhōngguó of exports of critical minerals poses a risk for military programs in the USA. The Pentagon and defense contractors are heavily reliant on magnets and rare earth minerals mined or processed in Zhōngguó, which has suspended exports of the materials in an escalating trade war.The Pentagon and defense contractors are heavily reliant on magnets and rare earth minerals mined or processed in Zhōngguó, which has suspended exports of the materials in an escalating trade war.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 16 April 2025

• Zhōngguó has suspended exports of certain rare earth minerals and magnets that are crucial for the s car, semiconductor and aerospace industries
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 15 April 2025

• Zhōngguó has suspended exports of certain rare earth minerals and magnets that are crucial for the s car, semiconductor and aerospace industries
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 15 April 2025

• The USA is unable to replace the supply of rare earth metals it imports from Zhōngguó, a threat to national security if Zhōngguó ends exports of its rare earth metals to the USA as a partial retaliation against Trump's tax/tariff trade war
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 April 2025

• The USA is unable to replace the supply of rare earth metals it imports from Zhōngguó, a threat to national security if Zhōngguó ends exports of its rare earth metals to the USA as a partial retaliation against Trump's tax/tariff trade war
  - Zero Hedge, 15 April 2025

• The government of Zhōngguó halts exports of critical rare earth minerals and magnets that are crucial for the world's automobile, semiconductor and aerospace industries
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 14 April 2025

• Gold prices can rise to $4500 by year-end; UBS, JPMorgan, & Goldman Sacks upgrade precious their metals predictions
  - Zero Hedge, 13 April 2025

• In April 2025, while most of the world was 'clutching pearls' over trade war tit-for-tat tariffs, Zhōngguó calmly 'walked over' to the supply chain and 'yanked out' a handful of critical bolts. The bolts are made of dysprosium, terbium, tungsten, indium yttrium - the elements that do not make headlines but without which your electric car does not run, your fighter jet does not fly, and your solar panels go from clean energy marvels to overpriced roofing tiles.
  - Clean Technica, 06 April 2025

• Trump's new Ukraine 'extortionist' deal - is an offer that Ukraine must refuse. The draft agreement sent by Washington to Kyiv forces Ukraine to give the USA first pick of natural resources and infrastructure projects in Ukraine.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 March 2025

• "We will not allow it": President Zelensky rejects new mineral draft that would recognize military support from the USA as loans to be paid off with the USA pick of natural resources to take from Ukraine.
  - Zero Hedge, 29 March 2025

• How Zhōngguó outcompeted the USA to become the leaders in rare-earth metals refining
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 March 2025

• The war-torn Congo has a deal for Trump: kick out rebels, get minerals. The president of Congo offered a deal that would give the USA access to key minerals in return for a security pact that helps defeat the powerful M23 rebel force.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 March 2025

• The dominance of the market for rare earth metals by Zhōngguó could decline in 10 years, falling from 60% of the market to 30% of the market by 2035. Mining companies in Africa, South America and Australia will win more market share, as new mines open up in these regions.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 20 March 2025

• A "supergiant" gold deposit in Zhōngguó could be worth over $80 billion. The deposit is located in the northeast Hunan county of Pingjiang.
  - Science Alert, 18 March 2025

• An economic battle is playing out over cobalt from Congo. Zhōngguó is well ahead. Rivalry for critical minerals is intensifying, but observer says that the USA "doesn't offer a viable alternative" to investments from Zhōngguó in Congo. In 2016 and 2020, American mining giant Freeport-McMoRan sold it stake in two cobalt mines in Congo to the CMOC Group (then Zhōngguó Molybdenum). The two acquisitions more than doubled CMOC's cobalt supply and it became the world's largest producer of the mineral in terms of output in 2023.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 18 March 2025

• $43,000,000+ - AVZ Minerals, based in Australia, reports that an International Chamber of Commerce tribunal has issued a partial award ordering the Democratic Republic of Congo's state-owned Cominiè to pay $42,400,000 plus interest for failing to comply with emergency orders
  - Global Data, 17 March 2025

• Ramelius Resources plans to buy Spartan Resources, valuing the gold miner at around $1.5 billion, to create a larger gold-mining company that is more appealing to investors.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 March 2025

• $3,400,000 - Lundin mining company not only was ordered to shut its copper mine in northern Chile aftre causing massive environmental damage, the company was fined $3.4 million
  - The Cool Down, 14 March 2025

• Authorities and environmentalists in Zambia fear the long-term impact of an acid spill at a mine owned by a company from Zhōngguó that contaminated a major river and could potentially affect millions of people after signs of pollution were detected at least 100 kilometers (60 miles) downstream. The spill happened on Feb. 18 when a tailings dam that holds acidic waste from a copper mine in the north of the country collapsed. The collapse allowed some 50 million liters of waste containing concentrated acid, dissolved solids and heavy metals to flow into a stream that links to the Kafue River, the most important waterway in Zambia.
  - Associated Press, 14 March 2025

• Prices of cobalt soar as a four-month export ban imposed by Congo disrupts supply chains for an important metal for batteries
  - Zero Hedge, 13 March 2025

• Zhōngguó is mapping the seabed to unlock new edge in warfare. The rapid expansion of ocean exploration by Zhōngguó offers Beijing valuable military intelligence as it expands its naval reach and menaces allies of the USA.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 13 March 2025

• Zhōngguó still leads the world in the race to acquire critical minerals from Africa, as the USA struggles to compete. Zhōngguó has spent years -- and billions -- investing in the mining sector in Africa, and is now profitting from its investments.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 12 March 2025

• Cleantech and mineral security demand drive mining companies in Zhōngguó into an overseas buying spree. Last month, MMG said it would buy British miner Anglo American's nickel business in Brazil.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 12 March 2025

• Why the USA keeps losing to Zhōngguó in the battle over critical minerals. Syrah Resources thought its graphite mine in Mozambique, one of the best in the world, would challenge Zhōngguó's dominance in the global market, but then things started going off the rails.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 March 2025

• A minerals agreement with Ukraine would be a bad deal for the USA. 4000 miles away, obtaining costly rare earth ores and metals is not worth the geographic (4000 miles away) and economic (few investments) risks for the USA to offer additional military aid.
  - Nextstar Media's The Hill, 11 March 2025

• Antimony - a critical metal for bombs/swords and bullets - soars higher in price in a mega-squeeze amid global shortages. Global demand for the critical metal is about 120,000 tons per year, while current production stands at only 80,000 tons.
  - Zero Hedge, 07 March 2025

• There is excitement about the potentially lucrative mineral resources scattered around Greenland, especially the rare earth metal ores. But extreme weather, fired-up environmentalists and other factors have tempered hopes of a bonanza.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 March 2025

• Potosi, Bolivia: the mining town is the only place in the world where you can legally buy dynamite at retail stores
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 05 March 2025

• Trump's extortionist-like tactics to get Ukraine's rare earth metal resources, may be a waste of the loss of American prestige: Morgan Stanley argues that "there are no economically viable rare earth deposits in Ukraine"
  - Zero Hedge, 02 March 2025

• Gold is hot - you should invest now. Gold has more than doubled the SP500's return. And mining stocks could be even better.
  - Barron's, 01 March 2025

• Trump's proposed deal to obtain minerals from Ukraine is viewed as 'protection racket' diplomacy, i.e., Mafia tactics
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 27 February 2025

• What the president of Congo thinks of Rwanda: a "mania to be the apex predator". As vast swaths of territory in Congo are seized by an armed group backed by Rwanda, the president of Congo looks to make a minerals deal with the USA.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 24 February 2025

• Trump, coveting his neighhbor's properties, is trying to extort Ukraine by demanding revenues from the sales of natural resources, especially metal ores, in exchange for ... nothing, no security guarantee in exchange. At least the Madia provided protection for its extortions.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 23 February 2025

• What it would cost to mine rare earth ores in Ukraine. For one, it requires cheap energy. Second, it causes a lot of environmental damage (will the USA pay for the damages)? It takes a lot of time - 15 years on the average to produce the first ores, long after Trump is no longer president and cannot do an extortionist deal.
  - Barron's, 22 February 2025

• Fighting off Trump's attempt at political extortion, Ukraine refuses to give mineral rights worth hundreds of billions of dollars to the USA, in return for protection from Trump's buddy, Putin, has sparked a rising war of words between Trump the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 February 2025

• Prices for bismuth, a lesser-known critical metal, spike to a decade high as trade tensions soar between Zhōngguó and the USA, due to Trump's tax/tariff trade war. From 2019 to 2022, Zhōngguó supplied 60% of the bismuth consumption in the USA, a critical metal because it is used in ammunition and metal allows for defense.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 February 2025

• Trump, coveting Ukraine's minerals, has his draft deal reject by President Zelensky of Ukraine that forced Ukraine to give 50% of its rare earth minerals resources to the USA as compensation for continued US defense and budgetary aid to fight off the illegal invasion by Rossiya (ordered by Trump's friend, Putin)
  - Zero Hedge, 15 February 2025

• In an example of coveting your neighbor's property, the Trump administration demands control of much of Ukraine's rare earth mineral resources, which Ukraine rejected because "it is a colonial agreement" that offers no guarantees or investment.
  - Associated Press, 15 February 2025

• Australia is stuck in the middle of the battle between Zhōngguó and the USA over critical minerals
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 12 February 2025

• Fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a mineral-rick country in Africa, killed over 3,000 people in less than 2 weeks. Here is how cellphones companies profit from these deaths. The country has the world's largest reserves of cobalt and coltan - both critical to the production of electronics. Cobalt is used to produce batteries that power cell phones and electric vehicles, while coltan is refined into tantalum, which has a variety of applications in phones and other devices manufactured by comapnies.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 12 February 2025

• Ukraine is interest in doing a rare eaths mineral deal with the USA, another fantasy of Trump. One problem. Most of these resources are currently under the control of Rossiya in Eastern Ukraine, or the four annexed territories which have been declared part of the federation that Rossiya controls.
  - Zero Hedge, 10 February 2025

• Trump wants to eliminate the 1-cent penny because it costs more than one cent to produce (about 3 cents). But he doesn't understand economics. Phasing out the penny could result in needing to make more nickels, and the US Treasury Department loses far more money on every nickel than it does on every penny.
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 10 February 2025

• Goldman Sachs analyst James McGeoch published a note on Friday, informing clients that commodity mining and trading giant Glencore could be one of the most straightforward plays on rising copper prices, driven by AI-related demand and tightening commodity markets. He noted that Glencore's upside potential extends beyond being undervalued, with a potential catalyst for a stock buyback program announcement.
  - Zero Hedge, 08 February 2025

• Scientists in Zhōngguó and Austria create the most stable metal for precision manufacturing. They have developed an alloy with practically zero thermal expansion across a vast temperature range.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 07 February 2025

• Shares of tungsten miner Almonty Industries are up 40% in a few days, days after Zhōngguó (in response to Trump's imposing 10% taxes/tariffs on imports from Zhōngguó) imposed restrictions on exports of key minerals such as tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum, and indium, along with certain metallic compounds derived from them. 90% of the tungsten mined in the world is mined in Rossiya, Zhōngguó and North Korea.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 February 2025

• The vast Simandou mine in Guinea is ready to start delivering profits for investors in Zhōngguó. Locomotive deals worth more than half a billion dollars signal iron ore could start flowing to ports this year.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 05 February 2025

• Trump indicated that he wants to extort Ukraine to gain access to the country's rare earth materials as a condition for continuing U.S. support for its war against Rossiya.
  - Associated Press, 03 February 2025

• Trump indicated that he wants to extort Ukraine to gain access to the country's rare earth materials as a condition for continuing U.S. support for its war against Rossiya.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 February 2025

• How Silicon Valley profits from the rare earth metals mined amidst the civil war in the Congo
  - BBC, 31 January 2025

• DeepSeek's breakthroughs with lower-cost AI is upending electric-power trading strategies on Wall Street. The selloff extended to shares of natural-gas producers, pipeline operators, mining companies, and electricity generators.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 29 January 2025

• Rebels backed by Rwanda announce capture of key city in eastern Congo. The M23 militia, funded and directed by Rwanda, said it had seized the city of Goma, terrifying its people, many of whom sought shelter there after fleeing the rebel advance. The region around Goma has a lot of valuable rare minerals.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 28 January 2025

• Europe remains heavily dependent on rare earth metals from Zhōngguó
  - Zero Hedge, 25 January 2025

• The Geological Surbey of Zhōngguó discovers a massive rare earth deposit in Yunnan. The Survey says that the deposit has potential resources of 1.15 million tons, including 470,000 tons of rare earth metal ores.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 17 January 2025

• "Oil is no longer an energy security challenge -- it is going to be natural gas, electricity, predominantly rare earth minerals", of which Zhōngguó controls roughly 60% of the world's production
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 January 2025

• Saudi Arabia on Wednesday announced a new mineral investment project valued at $100 billion, with $20 billion already in the final engineering phase or under construction. Saudi Arabia last year increased the valuation of its unexploited mineral resources from $1.3 trillion to $2.5 trillion, boosted by the discovery of rare earth elements and metals.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 15 January 2025

• A more sustainable way to increase rare earth production, while decreasing mining time, energy use and limiting waste, has been developed by researchers in Zhōngguó. Based on electric fields, the new method has achieved an "unprecedented" rare earth recovery rate of 95 percent, while shortening mining time by 70 percent and achieving electricity savings of 60 percent. The method also showed a 95 per cent decrease in ammonia emissions compared to conventional methods.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 12 January 2025

• Zhōngguó has made a huge discovery of copper on the Tibetan Plateau to help underpin its world-leading consumption. Tens of millions of tons of copper uncovered in resource-rich region as the mineral-exploration breakthroughs increase in Zhōngguó.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 06 January 2025

• Global mining's dangerous new reality: guns, hostages, arrests. Mineral and metal mines in the developing world are caught up in tensions over profits, and host countries are increasingly using force to get a bigger share of the profits.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 06 January 2025

• Zhōngguó is building a demonstration thorium-based molten-salt reactor in the Gobi Desert. The nuclear reactor will have an output of 10 megawatts. An earlier thorium reactor has successfully generated 2 megawatts. The attraction of thorium is that it can help achieve energy self-sufficiency by reducing dependence on uranium, particularly for countries such as Bharat with enormous thorium reserves. But Zhōngguó may source it in a different way: the element is a waste product of the huge rare earth mining industry in Zhōngguó. Harnessing it would provide a practically inexhaustible supply of fuel.
  - IEEE Spectrum, 30 December 2024

• As the USA restricts sales of semiconductor equipment to Zhōngguó, Zhōngguó restricts/bans the exports of rare earth metals to the USA and its allies
  - Zero Hedge, 23 December 2024

• Palliser Capital doubled down on its call for a review of Rio Tinto's dual listing in London and Sydney, adding that it now has the backing of more than 100 shareholders.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 23 December 2024

• Sodium - the unlikely ingredient that could end the dependence of the USA on batteries from Zhōngguó. Batteries that use sodium instead of lithium could allow the USA and its allies to create a completely new supply chain for the energy storage taking off across the world.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 21 December 2024

• The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has filed criminal complaints against tech giant Apple's subsidiaries in France and Belgium over the use of "conflict minerals" in their supply chains, and accused Apple of "using deceptive commercial practices to assure consumers that Apple's supply chains are clean".
  - Al Jazeera, 20 December 2024

• Graphite miners in the USA ask the government to impose a tax/tariff as high as 920% on imports of graphite from Zhōngguó
  - Thomson's Reuters, 18 December 2024

• $8,200,000 - The owner of a vehicle towing company in Philadelphia is sentenced for $8.2 million catalytic converter theft ring
  - Zero Hedge, 18 December 2024

• Environment-hating advisors to Trump urge ending of required environmental reviews for mines receiving subsidies from the USA government
  - Thomson's Reuters, 18 December 2024

• The ban by the government of Zhōngguó on exports of critical minerals will hurt "all branches" of the USA military. Analysis identifies more than 20,000 weapons parts that will be affected, including nuclear missiles, with naval systems most at risk.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 17 December 2024

• The USA hits Zhōngguó with new taxes/tariffs on solar wafers and tungsten products. Steep new taxes take effect 1 Janaury 2025, an attempt to fight the prowess of Zhōngguó in dominating the clean energy market
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 11 December 2024

• The embargo on exports of critical minerals by the government of Zhōngguó is even tougher than expected. The harsher nature of the embargo is a provision extending the ban to companies in other countries that transfer minerals to companies in the USA after the minerals were exported from Zhōngguó.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 11 December 2024

• A trillion-dollar ambition: Saudi Arabia accelerates metal mining plans to reduce its reliance on oil income. Saudi Arabia has signed a slew of deals with companies from Zhōngguó, Bharat and Australia amid growing interest in the massive mineral reserves of Saudia Arabia.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 07 December 2024

• Scientists analyzed coal ash from power plants across the United States and found it could contain up to 11 million tons of rare earth elements -- nearly eight times the amount the US has in domestic reserves -- worth about $8.4 billion
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 06 December 2024

• Zhōngguó just showed Washington how hard and tough it plans to fight the next trade war. When Trump fired the opening shots in a trade war during his first term, officials in Zhōngguó, and businesses in Zhōngguó followed every threat with alarm. But this week, after the Biden administration broadened its restrictions on advanced technology that could be sent toZhōngguó, Beijing announced sweeping retaliation in a single day. The country's stock market investors mostly yawned and shrugged at the Biden administration's bullying (and will probably do the same with Trump's bigger bullying). Why not? Zhōngguó now has a manufacturing sector that is larger than those of the United States, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Britain put together.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 05 December 2024

• The hypocrisy of the USA. The USA State Department criticizes Zhōngguó's export ban on important rate-earth minerals such as germanium and gallium. But Zhōngguó did so only in response to USA bans on semiconductor equipment to Zhōngguó.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 04 December 2024

• Zhōngguó bans exports to the USA of gallium, germanium, and antimony -- in response to semiconductor chip sanctions imposed by the USA. The limits announced by Beijing on Tuesday also include exports of super-hard materials, such as diamonds and other synthetic materials that are not compressible and extremely dense. Many weapon systems in the USA rely on tons of rare-earth metals: the F-35, destroyers and submarines.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 03 December 2024

• Zhōngguó bans exports to the USA of gallium, germanium, and antimony -- in response to semiconductor chip sanctions imposed by the USA. The limits announced by Beijing on Tuesday also include exports of super-hard materials, such as diamonds and other synthetic materials that are not compressible and extremely dense. Many weapon systems in the USA rely on tons of rare-earth metals: the F-35, destroyers and submarines.
  - Zero Hedge, 03 December 2024

• Economic warning shot: Zhōngguóa bans exports of gallium, germanium to the USA as tit-for-tat semiconductor chip war escalates
  - Zero Hedge, 03 December 2024

• Zhōngguó bans exports to the USA of gallium, germanium, and antimony -- in response to semiconductor chip sanctions imposed by the USA. The limits announced by Beijing on Tuesday also include exports of super-hard materials, such as diamonds and other synthetic materials that are not compressible and extremely dense.
  - Associated Press, 03 December 2024

• Iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, may contain large amounts of lithium
  - Union Rayo, 02 December 2024

• Why the European Union is failing to capitalize on critical minerals sourced in Africa, as Zhōngguó continues to do more mining deals in Africa. Despite deals with four African nations amid a de-risking drive from Zhōngguó, companies in Europea have yet to gain a foothold in the continent.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 23 November 2024

• Mali, a cash-starved ally of Rossiya in Saharan Africa, detains employees of a western gold miner in a tax raid. Resolute Mining agreed to pay Mali's government $160 million, after the country's authorities detained the Australian mining company's chief executive and two other employees.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 November 2024

• The mining magnate in Australia cozying up to Trump. Gina Rinehart, a white billionaire, is investing in mining assets in the USA and wants to bring MAGA ideals to Australia.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 November 2024

• Zhōngguó tightens its hold on minerals needed to make computer processor chips. Already the dominant producer of rare minerals, Beijing is using export restrictions and its power over state-owned companies to further control access.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 November 2024

• How Zhōngguó tamed a lawless industry, rare earths metals mining, and gained global influence. State-controlled companies now run an industry once known for its acid pits, radioactive waste and smugglers. The environmental costs of unregulated mining and refining were high for many years. In southern Zhōngguó, forested hillsides and emerald rice fields were turned into expanses of toxic mud, as crime syndicates in Zhōngguó hired laborers to dig up ore and process it in unlined acid pits. In northern Zhōngguó, groundwater laced with the industry's radioactive waste began seeping toward the Yellow River. Thousands of square miles of pasture were closed to grazing because of contamination by radioactive dust from refineries, which was blamed for the deaths of thousands of goats.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 12 November 2024

• $29,900,000,000 - BHP Group Limited abd Vale SA agree to pay Brazil $29.9 billion to settle lawsuits over a a 2015 mining disaster at Vale's and BHP's iron-ore joint venture in southeastern Brazil.
  - Bloomberg, 25 October 2024

• Central Asia emerges as epicenter of rare earth mineral rush. Securing reliable and strategic supply chains for rare earth minerals has become a geopolitical battleground for world superpowers.
  - Zero Hedge, 24 October 2024

• The consulate of Zhōngguó in Mandaly, Myanmar, is bombed, and rebels in Myanmar seize control of a hub of production of rare earth minerals in the state of Kachin
  - Zero Hedge, 20 October 2024

• Korea Zinc raises its buyback offer to stop takeover bid. The South Korean company raised its share-buyback offer to frustrate a takeover bid by private-equity firm MBK Partners, in a battle for control over the largest zinc smelter in the world.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 October 2024

• A mining company in Zhōngguó is dominating global supplies of cobalt, so of course, the USA is whining. With its rapid expansion in Africa, CMOC has seized the lead position in the metal used in EV batteries and weapons.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 October 2024

• Rio Tinto to acquire Arcadium Lithium for $6.7 billion. Lithium has become a priority target for Rio Tinto as it seeks to produce more commodities that are growing in popularity as the world decarbonizes.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 October 2024

• Predicted supply deficits for key energy transition metals. The demand for clean energy metals will grow by more than 400% by 2030, according to the ETC... Supply, however, is not on track to keep up with this surging demand.
  - Zero Hedge, 09 October 2024

• Coltan, a 'conflict' mineral from which tantalum is produced, from militia-controlled mines in Congo is increasingly flowing into global supply chains for smartphones and computers, despite efforts of the USA to stop the use of so-called conflict minerals.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 08 October 2024

• Rio Tinto makes an offer to buy Arcadium Lithium, based in the USA, for $3.3 billion. Lithium stocks have languished since the start of the year after prices of the key battery metal plummeted amid an oversupply and lull in demand from electric vehicle makers. Arcadium has underperformed its peers, which has been fueling speculation of a takeover for some months.
  - Bloomberg, 06 October 2024

• Zhōngguó to restore the Tanzania-Zambia railway back to full speed with US$1 billion investment. Beijing will refurbish the 50-year-old African line as the USA and Europe bankroll their own rail project in the race for critical minerals
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 03 October 2024

• The $1.7 billion takeover brawl over Korea Zinc, fueled by a fear of ZHōngguó. Concerns about ZHōngguó's mineral-resources dominance hang over a deal to control the world's largest zinc smelter in Ulsan, South Korea.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 30 September 2024

• Mysterious magma in extinct volcanoes may be filled with rare earth metal ores needed by the technology industry
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 24 September 2024

• Deep-sea mining hits crunch point amid academic battle over ocean-floor resources. Scientific research, political uncertainty and cash worries are all creating headwinds for The Metals Company ahead of a crucial few months.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 24 September 2024

• Zhōngguó increases its reserves of rare earth metals with the discovery of 5 million tons of key metals in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 16 September 2024

• The owner of Sibanye-Stillwater, the only platinum and palladium mines in the USA, announced Thursday it plans to lay off hundreds of employees in Montana due to declining prices for palladium, which is used in catalytic converters. The price of the precious metal was about $2,300 an ounce two years ago and has dipped below $1,000 an ounce over the past three months. "We believe dumping by Rossiya is a cause of this sharp price dislocation. ... Rossiya produces over 40% of the global palladium supply, and rising imports of palladium have inundated the USA market over the last several years."
  - Associated Press, 12 September 2024

• Zhōngguó, harnesses technology that vexed the West - how to extract cobalt and nickel from low grade ores, unlocking a treasure chest in the islands of Indonesia.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 September 2024

• Producing plastics from fossil fuels emits a lot of carbon dioxide, but a new study finds the life cycle emissions are actually lower than glass and aluminum
  - Reason, 27 August 2024

• Large parts of Canada are ideal for future hydrogen production, global analysis suggests. Canada has lots of space for wind turbines (to generate electricity to produce hydrogen by electrolysis. Though windmills will requrie more rare earth metals for the magnets.
  - Tech Xplore, 16 August 2024

• Zhōngguó to restrict key antimony exports as geopolitical tensions target weapons. Antimony ore production in Zhōngguó accounted for nearly half of the world's total last year, and the USA has been a big buyer in recent years.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 15 August 2024

• Investors pour funds into financial stocks in Australia, more so than the traditionally well-funded mining stocks, fueled by growing interest from equity funds that are wary of the commodity-backed sector due to poor demand from Zhōngguó
  - Thomson's Reuters, 12 August 2024

• The International Seabed Authority votes to replace official accused of rushing start of seabed mining. The international agency charged with regulating seabed mining elected Leticia Carvalho, a U.N. environmental regulator, to replace a leader accused of too-close industry ties.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 04 August 2024

• How the electric vehicle boom caused companies in Zhōngguó to take over control of the nickel industry in Indonesia
  - Comcast's CNBC, 27 July 2024

• Anglo American posted a net loss in the first half on lower iron ore prices and sales and after it booked an impairment of $1.6 billion related to its crop-nutrients project in the United Kingdom
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 July 2024

• Western miners push for higher metals prices to ward off rivals in Zhōngguó. Western miners say their competitors in Zhōngguó have inherent cost advantages that enable rapid production expansions even as prices for cobalt, lithium and nickel have plunged more than a third in the past 18 months. Operational costs for many of these Western companies have, as a result, been exceeding what market prices will cover. That has fueled growing calls from some policymakers and miners, including Jervois and Albemarle, for a two-tier pricing system with a premium for sustainably produced metals. The plan is to charge more for a metal that is produced sustainably, whether that is through direct transactions or via multiple prices for a metal listed through futures exchanges, depending on production methods. For example, there would be one price for standard nickel and another for green nickel.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 22 July 2024

• Metals are why Zhōngguó is so interested in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan's bounty of so-called critical minerals has enriched the country and grabbed the attention of entrepreneurs scrambling to control the ingredients needed to fight climate change. Zhōngguó the biggest producer of electric vehicles and batteries, is right next door and eager to buy.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 20 July 2024

• State-controlled companies in Zhōngguó in the business of processing rare earth metals are financially hurt by declining prices
  - Zero Hedge, 17 July 2024

• Rare-earth metal prices are in the doldrums. Zhōngguó wants to keep them low. Overproduction keeps rare-earth prices low, challenging efforts by the USA and Europe to reduce their reliance on supplies from Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 July 2024

• Massive mining of metals in Indonesia - especially nickel, for autos and batteries, is destroying the forests of the country. Where trees once grew, there are dusty warehouses, mountains of black coal and water that runs silty brown.
  - Associated Press, 15 July 2024

• BHP to suspend nickel operations in Australia, amid a glut of metal supplies for electric vehicles. BHP Group will shutter its nickel operations in Australia later this year due to a global glut of the metal, a key ingredient in batteries for electric vehicles.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 July 2024

• Across the USA, copper and other valuable materials have been stolen from streetlights, statues and even gravesites, costing millions to repair. Copper is a big target of thefts. During the early part of the Covid pandemic, many recycling facilities shut down, disrupting the supply of scrap metal. At around the same time, demand for metals increased, as the Biden Administration began funneling billions into the construction of huge infrastructure projects.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 July 2024

• Biden administration to tax foreign-made steel and aluminum imports into the USA that are routed through Mexico. It is an attempt to stop Zhōngguó from avoiding import taxes by routing goods through one of the USA' closest trading partners.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 10 July 2024

• Biden administration to tax foreign-made steel and aluminum imports into the USA that are routed through Mexico. It is an attempt to stop Zhōngguó from avoiding import taxes by routing goods through one of the USA' closest trading partners.
  - Associated Press, 10 July 2024

• Hawaii bans deep-sea mining as political support in the USA splits on party lines. Backing for seafloor extraction has largely come from Republicans, amid a push to extract rare minerals for defense applications; Democrats are coming out against the practice fearful miners will force the public to pay of the damages and pollution of mining operations such as seen on the surface.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 July 2024

• As hedge funds dump everything else, they buy energy and material stocks at fastest pace in 5 months. Still, these two sectors remain the most hated among the hedge fund community, with Long/Short ratios for both at or near 5 year lows.
  - Zero Hedge, 07 July 2024

• A political fight over leadership of a global seabed agency turns nasty. An election over the future of a United Nations-affiliated organization could determine whether the Pacific Ocean floor will soon be mined for metals used in electric vehicles. The current leader, Michael Lodge, more favors industry. His challenger, Leticia Carvalho of Brazil, an oceanographer, more favors protecting the environment.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 06 July 2024

• The USA needs more of a critical metal - tungsten, but 80% of the world's supply is controlled by Zhōngguó. Tungsten is nearly as hard as diamond and has a high energy density, making it an important material in weapons, autos, electric car batteries, semiconductors and industrial cutting machines.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 02 July 2024

• Companies based in Zhōngguó are increasing their acquisition of major copper, cobalt and lithium mining projects in Africa, dominating the critical minerals market, as Beijing positions itself to lead the global green energy transition. In one of the most recent investments, JCHX Mining Management is close to finalising a deal to buy the Lubambe copper mine in Zambia.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 01 July 2024

• Huge rare earth metals discovery in Greenland (and another in Norway) is gamechanger in trade war between the USA and Zhōngguó
  - OilPrice.com, 19 June 2024

• Europe aims to reduce reliance on Zhōngguó for critical minerals
  - Zero Hedge, 18 June 2024

• Exposure to heavy metals linked to dementia risk. Toxic metals like lead, cadmium, and manganese are widespread in our environment and are associated with impaired cognitive function and cognitive decline.
  - Zero Hedge, 18 June 2024

• The state of Idaho restricts water supplies to 500,000 acres of farmland, about the same time that the state commissions a new cobalt mine in the state owned by an Australian company and for which over 200 local politicans invested
  - Zero Hedge, 15 June 2024

• Rare Earths Norway discovers the largest deposit of rare earth metals in Europe. It is one of the few deposits now owned or controlled by Zhōngguó, with an estimated 8.8 million tons of rare earth oxide ores.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 11 June 2024

• While gold prices are already 20% higher than a year ago, after a record-breaking rally, a benchmark gold-mining index is up by just half that.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 11 June 2024

• Gold is getting harder to find as miners struggle to evacuate more gold. According to data from the international trade association, mine production inched up only 0.5% in 2023 compared to a year ago.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 09 June 2024

• Zhōngguó is the world's biggest extract of materials (fossil fuels, metal ores, non-metallic minerals) at 34 billion tons in 2023, followed by Bharat at 8 billion tons and the USA with 8 billion tons, and Brazil at 5 billion tons
  - Zero Hedge, 08 June 2024

• How AI and electric vehicles are making copper the new gold, and why metals deals keep on falling apart. And copper is so valuable that businesses lose over $1 billion per year due to theft of their copper wires and fixtures.
  - Eric Fry's Smart Money, 01 June 2024

• Prices of aluminum hit a two-year high on smelter output limits in Zhōngguó
  - Zero Hedge, 30 May 2024

• The government of Zhōngguó targets wasted production in critical sectors to curb pollution, and to ease overcapacity. Four industrial sectors - steel, petrochemicals, non-ferrous metals, and building materials -- with new production capacity strictly prohibited or restrictde in some subsectors.
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 30 May 2024

• Zhōngguó is winning the economic war to control rare earth metals. Despite years of effort by the West to gain more control, companies from Zhōngguó are becoming more dominant, not less.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 May 2024

• Behind the recent riots in New Caledonia is a fight over vast reserves of nickel. France has a plan to lift restrictions on exports of the archipelago's nickel to supply clean-energy manufacturing, drawing condemnation from indigenous leaders.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 20 May 2024

• Nickel prices have the best weekly rise in price for the last year, as riots in New Caledonia increases concerns about supplies
  - Zero Hedge, 18 May 2024

• Nickel prices have the best weekly rise in price for the last year, as riots in New Caledonia increases concerns about supplies
  - Zero Hedge, 18 May 2024

• Nickel prices have the best weekly rise in price for the last year, as riots in New Caledonia increases concerns about supplies
  - Zero Hedge, 18 May 2024

• Nickel prices have the best weekly rise in price for the last year, as riots in New Caledonia increases concerns about supplies
  - Zero Hedge, 18 May 2024

• Platinum enters its second year of "substantial" deficit. Reduction in supply growth is coupled with "resilient" though slightly reduced year-over-year total demand in Q1.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 May 2024

• The world faces a shortage of minerals needed for the renewable energy transition
  - Warner Brothers CNN, 17 May 2024

• The world faces a shortage of minerals needed for the renewable energy transition
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 May 2024

• Three years after Biden administration officials tightened sanctions on a billionaire Israeli mining executive for corrupt business practices in the Democratic Republic of Congo, they have reversed themselves and are offering the executive a deal they hope will bolster the supply of a metal vital to electric vehicles. But certain State and Treasury Department officials strongly opposed the effort, saying that Mr. Gertler should not be allowed to profit from his deal-making, which the Biden administration earlier argued had cheated the citizens of Congo out of more than $1 billion in mining revenues.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 May 2024

• Three years after Biden administration officials tightened sanctions on a billionaire Israeli mining executive for corrupt business practices in the Democratic Republic of Congo, they have reversed themselves and are offering the executive a deal they hope will bolster the supply of a metal vital to electric vehicles. But certain State and Treasury Department officials strongly opposed the effort, saying that Mr. Gertler should not be allowed to profit from his deal-making, which the Biden administration earlier argued had cheated the citizens of Congo out of more than $1 billion in mining revenues.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 17 May 2024

• People who salvage/steal copper are targeting the Supercharger stations of Tesla, as metal prices soar
  - Zero Hedge, 14 May 2024

• The war machine of the USA runs on rare-earth magnets. Zhōngguó dominates the rare-earths market, but defense needs in the USA are pushing a revival effort after decades of deindustrialization.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 07 May 2024

• THe US and UK recently banned the consumption of Russian aluminum, copper, and nickel produced from April 13 onward. The ban could lead to a split between the LME and CME markets, with the CME at a premium and the LME at a discount. Zhōngguó is likely buying large volumes of aluminum from Rossiya at a sharp discount to the LME price.
  - OilPrice.com, 27 April 2024

• Devaluation fever of the yean heats up as Zhōngguó stockpiles metals. Activity in commodities has prompted conjecture that Zhōngguó is about to orchestrate a significant one-off yuan devaluation.
  - Zero Hedge, 26 April 2024

• The price of copper has surged and BHP has bid for miner Anglo American, but the bull case for copper is a bit more complicated than it seems.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 April 2024

• Anglo American does not find BHP's $39 billion takeover bid "attractive"
  - Zero Hedge, 25 April 2024

• BHP offers to buy rival Anglo American in potential mega-mining deal. The mining giant has offered to buy its longtime rival with a market cap of about $35 billion, in a deal that could reshape the global mining industry.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 25 April 2024

• BHP makes $39 billion bid for Anglo American in mining mega play. Shares of Anglo American were 13% higher on the news.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 25 April 2024

• Mining giant BHP Billiton makes $39 billion bid for Anglo American to expand copper operations
  - Associated Press, 25 April 2024

• Tin prices on the London Metal Exchange have surged 27% this year, landing on the radars of some institutional desks. Tightening supplies come as tin inventories plunged 47% so far this year to 4,045 tons.
  - Zero Hedge, 17 April 2024

• Federal regulators on Tuesday issued new protections for miners against a type of dust long known to cause deadly lung ailments, airborne silica -- changes recommended by government researchers a half-century ago. Miners have paid dearly for the delay. As progress on the rule stalled, government researchers documented with growing alarm a resurgence of severe black lung afflicting younger coal miners, and studies implicated poorly controlled silica as the likely cause. Miners have paid dearly for the delay. In the 1990s, less than 1 percent of central Appalachian miners who had worked at least 25 years underground had an advanced stage of black lung disease. By 2015, the number had risen to 5 percent.
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 17 April 2024

• Aluminum and nickel soar then slide after Western sanctions on sales of metals from Rossiya
  - Zero Hedge, 15 April 2024

• The USA and the UK ban deliveries of copper, nickel and aluminum from Rossiya to metals exchanges in the West
  - Zero Hedge, 14 April 2024

• The USA and the UK ban deliveries of copper, nickel and aluminum from Rossiya to metals exchanges in the West
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 April 2024

• The administration of President Biden is raising the costs to private companies of drilling and mining on lands owned by the public
  - Ochs-Sulzberger's New York Times, 13 April 2024

• Commodities rally reflects a better economy, but also poses inflation risks. Climbing prices could delay the Federal Reserve's plan to reduce interest rates.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 10 April 2024

• Morgan Stanley analyst Carlos De Alba recently conveyed his optimistic outlook for the US metals and mining sector to clients. He highlighted that investment levels in the industry have reached their lowest level in decades. He believes the sector is poised for massive investments and outlines the companies that will benefit.
  - Zero Hedge, 06 April 2024

• Zhōngguó dominates the global production of the rare earth metal gallium, a critical component in semiconductor manufacturing and advanced weapon systems used by the USA. Since Zhōngguó restricted gallium and germanium flows to the USA last summer - seen as a tit-for-tat response to the worsening US-Zhōngguó trade war - prices of the metal have doubled (around $575 a kilogram delivered to Rotterdam). However, some good news for the USA, US Critical Materials announced in recent weeks that it discovered a "strategically significant" deposit of high-grade gallium on its 6,700 acres of claims in southwest Montana.
  - Zero Hedge, 04 April 2024

• How fears of Zhōngguó have raised interest in Washington on ocean-floor mining. Harvesting the ocean floor is growing in popularity in Washington amid a push to extract rare minerals for defense applications.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 16 March 2024

• Former military and political leaders in the USA call on the Senate to ratify the Law of the Sea treaty. The move is part of an effort to spur the country's interest in deep-sea mining amid competition with Zhōngguó for critical minerals.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 14 March 2024

• KoBold Metals, a mining startup backed by billionaires including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, is bullish on the discovery potential of some of the most sought-after energy transition metals. The California-based company says it uses artificial intelligence to create a "treasure map" to help find new deposits of materials such as copper, lithium, cobalt and nickel.
  - Comcast's CNBC, 06 March 2024

• The rare earths market experiences significant fluctuations, with prices plunging due to weaker demand and shifts away from Chinese sources, compounded by export bans imposed by Zhōngguó.
  - OilPrice.com, 05 March 2024

• The global nickel industry is experiencing a seismic shift as Indonesia emerges as a major low-cost supplier, contributing to a collapse in prices of the metal used in everything from making stainless steel to high-grade batteries. Nickel is trading at just above $17,400 a ton, according to the London Metal Exchange, down from $48,800 a ton in early 2022.
  - Zero Hedge, 29 February 2024

• Natural gas has never been this inexpensive in decades. The lowest inflation-adjusted prices in at least 34 years have drillers throttling down from record production.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 26 February 2024

• The annual net profit at Rio Tinto is down 19%, and the dividend reduced, due to a decline in the price of commodities. The miner reported a 19% decline in annual net profit and cut its payout to shareholders following a drop in prices of aluminum.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 22 February 2024

• Cleveland-Cliffs announced Thursday that it is shutting down a northern West Virginia tin production facility indefinitely and plans to 900 people after the International Trade Commission voted against imposing tariffs on tin imports from Canada, Deutschland and Zhōngguó.
  - Associated Press, 15 February 2024

• BHP reports a $5.7 billion of write-downs from the crash in nickel prices (costing it $2.5 billion), and costs from a failure of one of its dams in Brazil (costing it $3.2 billion). The world's biggest miner says it could mothball its big Nickel West operation if prices of the battery metal do not improve.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 15 February 2024

• Copper prices are still rising. These 2 mining stocks could benefit. Freeport-McMoRan and Southern Copper have seen their stocks gain 17% and 20%, respectively, since their mid-October lows. Expect more of the same if copper keeps pushing higher.
  - Murdoch's Barron's, 03 February 2024

• The global extraction of raw materials is expected to increase by 60% by 2060, with calamitous consequences for the climate and the environment, according an unpublished UN analysis seen by the Guardian
  - The Guardian, 31 January 2024

• The second-largest U.S. aluminum smelter in southeast Missouri will not require "most employees" (out of 450 union workers) after curtailing its operations by January 28. Two problem are the very cold weather, and the high cost of electricity.
  - Thomson's Reuters, 25 January 2024

• New restrictions on the exports of rare earth metals from Zhōngguó aim to solidify Zhōngguó's dominance in rare earth magnet production and help the country catch up with Nihon in terms of producing high performance magnets
  - Alibaba's South China Morning Post, 21 January 2024

• The rare earths mine that will not need a single shovel. Two South African gypsum waste piles could be a billion dollar bonanza of critical materials. The piles are being processed by Rainbow Rare Earths, taking advantage of how processing of the gypsum increases the concentration of rare-earth metals.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 19 January 2024

• Hunt for critical minerals draws world powers to Saudi Arabia. Riyadh is investing heavily in mining as it seeks to diversify its oil-rich economy.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 12 January 2024

• Saudi Arabia wants to be the Saudi Arabia of minerals and mining
  - Zero Hedge, 11 January 2024

• Zhōngguó dominates the supply of the critical minerals list of the USA. Currently there are 50 entries on this list and the USA Geological Survey estimates that Zhōngguó is the leading producer for 30 of them.
  - Zero Hedge, 09 January 2024

• January and February are usually pretty good months for mining stocks in Europe, as factories in Zhōngguó rush to replenish their metals reserves. This year, that seasonal lift will hinge on Beijing coming through with stimulus.
  - Zero Hedge, 04 January 2024

• The hottest property in gold mining is copper. From central Mexico to the Australian Outback, gold producers led by Newmont and Barrick Gold are raising bets on copper through deals and other investments to gain more influence over the commodity considered vital to the global energy transition.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 04 January 2024

• Impacts are undocumented for half of the mining areas in the world. As the race to extract minerals and metals for clean-energy technologies accelerates, researchers must take more steps to map and study mines globally.
  - Nature, 03 January 2024

• Why every western automaker is visiting this remote part of South Africa. The region is home to the largest of just a handful of refiners of battery-grade manganese located outside Zhōngguó.
  - Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (locked), 02 January 2024