LONDON (Reuters) – A U.S. law on conflict minerals is curbing African warlords’ presence around mines in Congo, campaigners say, but its full impact remains unclear, with most firms failing to pinpoint the origin of their metals by a June deadline.
Read more at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-minerals-conflict-20140630,0,1191254.story
Canadian industry want to secure 20% of global supply by 2018. At the moment China produces some 90% of the world’s rare earths – used in a variety of industries including green technology, defence systems and consumer electronics – and also consumes the bulk of global production.
In January a new industry group called Canadian Rare Earth Elements Network, was established in cooperation with Natural Resources Canada to develop and research the sector. Canada’s parliament launched a study of the country’s REE industry in November which was released last week.
Read more at: http://www.mining.com/canada-identifies-top-rare-earth-projects-48319/
General Electric apparently never got the memo on 3-D printing’s supposed shortcomings, because the company has been busy proving that 3-D printing is an extremely capable technology, well suited for mission-critical and highly complex manufacturing applications. By challenging the conventional wisdom that 3-D printing is primarily a prototyping process, GE has put itself many years ahead of its closest competitors in terms of 3-D printing manufacturing expertise. And because 3-D printing has the ability to create fundamentally better products, GE has the potential to gain a considerable competitive advantage in the coming years.
Read more at: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/06/28/how-general-electric-company-challenges-convention.aspx
Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd.’s tax dispute with Mongolia shouldn’t derail $4 billion of project financing to expand the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine part owned by Rio Tinto Group, a local director at the resource’s operator said.
“Don’t mix the political importance of the project with this tax audit issue,” Ganbold Davaadorj, a director for Oyu Tolgoi LLC, said yesterday by phone from Ulaanbaatar. The “tax authority report is one thing and importance of investment in the project is a completely different thing.”
Read more at: http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/content/en/mineweb-political-economy?oid=245828&sn=Detail
OAK RIDGE, Tennessee — The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has launched the Institute for Functional Imaging of Materials, which aims to accelerate the development of new materials that can be used to produce more efficient solar cells, batteries and other products.
Read more at: http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/7252d6b1edc4428abbd051b40c862e12/TN–Imaging-Institute
Indonesia will tighten regulations on tin exports, setting standards on the content and packaging of non-ingot products, to prevent inaccurate declaration of cargoes from the world’s biggest shipper.
Read more at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-24/indonesia-seeks-tin-export-rules-to-avoid-inaccurate-declaration.html
Shares in lithium battery maker Luxiang Co. climbed by their 10% daily trading limit at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange for a second day on Monday after Chinese auto billionaire Lv Xiangyang announced plans last week to increase his stake in the company.
Luxiang said last Thursday Lv’s Youngy Investment Holding Group will pay 403.5 million yuan, or $65 million, for 27.6 million new shares.
Burundi’s government took a 15 percent stake in a project to build a nickel and iron mine led by Burundi Mining Metallurgy Ltd., said Danko Konchar, chief executive officer of Kermas Group, the majority owner.
The state’s stake in Burundi Musongati Mining, of which BMM holds the remaining 85 percent interest, was part of the terms of a mining-license agreement signed this month, Konchar said in a June 19 phone interview from Saint-Tropez, France.
Read more at: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-06-23/burundi-government-takes-15-percent-ownership-of-kermas-nickel-project
Nickel rose after Macquarie Group Ltd. and Citigroup Inc. reaffirmed their outlooks for supply shortfalls and advised buying the metal following three straight weekly price drops, the longest slump since November.
Nickel surged to a two-year high in May after Indonesia, the largest global producer from mines, barred raw-ore exports in January. Prices have since fallen 12 percent, and that “represents a buying opportunity” even as speculative demand may be cooling temporarily, Macquarie analysts including Colin Hamilton in London said in a report today.
Read more at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-17/nickel-climbs-as-citigroup-and-macquarie-see-shortfall.html
PARIS, Jun 17, 2014 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Saft, the world’s leading designer and manufacturer of advanced technology batteries for industry, has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract from Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime (DLA). Under the contract, totaling $17.5 million, Saft will provide nickel-based batteries and cells for military aircraft applications to be used by the United States military.
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