Esther Tanquintic-Misa

The controversy now has hit home.With Lynas Corp. still to fully arrest and win over the controversy surrounding its Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) in Malaysia, here comes yet another information that could possibly whip up a storm right where its home base is.

Rare earths miners in China and Australia have decided to fast-track their respective exploration projects amid earlier reports that the falling prices of rare earths in the global market will trigger anew a massive demand for the precious metals.

As global mineral producers want a more aggressive stance in their search for new sources of precious metals including gold, platinum, and palladium; and other industrial metals, but they might be caught within a credit crunch that may hamper their plans this year.

Australia's total gold yield had barely moved in 2011 and two tonnes less than those registered in 2010.

Australia's total gold yield had nary a movement in 2011, albeit two tonnes less than those registered in 2010.

The Malaysian government continues to uphold Australian miner Lynas Corp., and its beleaguered Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) after it directed the company to move its proposed residue disposal facility to a site far from the LAMP location in Gebeng, Kuantan province.

Kazakhstan's appetite and subsequent buying of the precious safe haven yellow metal gold has yet to reach its apex, as U.K.-listed miner Kazakhmys PLC on Thursday announced it anticipates the country's central bank to shore up its gold stockpile this first quarter by as much as 69,000 troy ounces.

Australian rare earths miner Lynas Corp. will likely pay some $18 million a year in royalty payments or 2.5 percent to the Western Australian Government after the latter's amendments to its Mining Regulations of 1978.

Shares of Australian coal miner New Hope Corp. plummeted to more than 10 percent to $5.11 on Thursday after plans to sell itself for more than $5 billion fizzled out.

An improved exports scenario in February posed good news for China and the rest of its trading partners, expanding for the first time in four months, with the official purchasing managers' index (PMI) of the world's second-largest economy reaching 51.0, well above expectations of the global market.

After implementing the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) powered public buses in Beijing, China, whose energy consumption rose by 7 per cent in 2011 over a year ago, will conduct a trial run of methanol-fuelled cars in three provinces effective March 2012.

Iran has devised a scheme to maintain some fiscal normalcy amid international tensions related to its nuclear programme after the U.S. and the eurozone imposed sanctions affecting the country's trade and financial transactions, by accepting physical gold as payment for trade, along with the U.S. dollar and other agreed currencies of other nations.

Determined to make its presence felt in the global community, the BRICS group - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - has pen-pushed for discussion on their fourth summit scheduled on March the creation of a multilateral bank for their group's exclusive use and disposal.

The $6-billion Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold project in Mongolia is on track to meet its initial production targetted to commence in the third quarter of this year with the construction of the mine's first phase reaching 73 percent completion, owner Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. announced on Monday.

The score now is two against zero.First was when the Atomic Energy Licencing Board (AELB) and the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti)of Malaysia granted Lynas Corp. a temporary operating licence (TOL) to proceed with the controversial $200 million rare earths processing plant in the province of Kuantan. Now second is the issuance of a preliminary objection by Malaysian government legal representatives against the court action lodged by a group of Kuantan residents that challe...

India is determined to promote its nuclear energy program with a planned 20 more nuclear reactors in the pipeline amid escalating protests in the country.

Qatar, in an apparent bid to ascertain its position as the world's top exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), is looking to invest into the LNG facilities of Australia, the world's fourth-largest LNG exporter, in what could be seen as a merger of two LNG strongholds.

Japanese consumers would be required to reuse and reprocess rare earths metals found in a number of electronic products in a bid to lessen dependence on the precious metals under opending legislation.

The almost complete $200-million rare earths processing plant in Malaysia of Lynas Corp. continues to wrangle protests, even as a nuke expert had said the plant is very much safe.

Is it really the falling prices of rare earths in the global market that might push China to reconsider its export policies, or the threat that the U.S. and Australia might overtake it as the world's rare earths hub?

Russian-Canadian miner Rusoro Mining's loss has become the Citic Group of China's gain as the Chinese state investment company on Friday sealed with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez an accord to develop the Las Cristinas gold project, along with other oil and mining projects.

Amidst a global financial pandemonium, the group collectively known as BRIC - the countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China - in a show of collective strength is contemplating pooling resources and funds together to create a multilateral bank, but only by and for the exclusive use of developing nations such as theirs.

Ethiopia, Africa's second-most populous nation, wants to sell portions of its state-owned tantalum rare earth mine to foreign countries, and it wants investors from China, Sweden, Germany or South Korea to make a bid on it.

Unconfirmed media reports on Thursday circulated that Vale, the world's second largest metals and mining company and global leader in iron ore production, is reportedly eyeing to buy into Australian iron ore resources to strategize its shipment schemes to the Asian market.

The Adani Group of India has allotted a $6 billion worth of funds for projected coal mine-related expenditures as it pushes through with its overseas expansion plans in Australia and Indonesia by 2015.

China's loss may well be very much the U.S.' gain as American rare earths producer Molycorp, Inc. on Wednesday announced the sequential start-up of its $895-million worth new Project Phoenix rare earth manufacturing facility at its flagship Mountain Pass, California operation, ahead of an April 1 target schedule.

Just when it committed last year to lessen, if not totally eradicate, its dependency on coal to fuel its energy requirements via a sworn participation into the Kyoto Protocol, China's energy use, and parallel coal consumption usage, has risen by 7 percent over a year ago, based on preliminary calculations by the National Bureau of Statistics released on Wednesday.

China has outlined a five-year plan meant to fast-track the development of its domestic downstream industries that use rare earths, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Wednesday.

The Gold Administration Bureau of China on Tuesday has announced that gold making in the country's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in 2011 jumped by 15.18 per cent to register a new record high of 12.1 tonnes compared from a year ago.