Nuclear growth will 'almost certainly' proceed in China, India - Scotia

Countries like China, India, Russia and South Korea abandoning their nuclear plans in reaction to the Japanese disaster would make fossil fuels “enormously” more expensive, Scotiabank said on Monday. Economics VP Patricia Mohr added that the...

Chinese environmental laws to drive up rare-earth prices – paper

China on Monday issued environmental standards for rare-earth element producers, which 60% of the local industry would struggle to meet, a state-owned paper said. This will lead to consolidation among miners of the metals, used in hi-tech...

Japan’s synthetic palladium claim met with scepticism, China’s uranium-reprocessing breakthrough claim dismissed as ‘spin’

New Year reports of Japanese scientists achieving a synthetic palladium breakthrough and of Chinese researchers developing a technology capable of allowing the country’s uranium resources to last 3 000 years have both been met with scepticism....

China mulls development of big north-west coal resources

China would become a coal exporter once more if the country decided to develop large coal resources in the north-west Xinjiang province, a top International Energy Agency official said on Tuesday. This would depress international coal prices, and...

Baffinland Iron seeks partner for Nunavut project

TSX-listed Baffinland Iron Mines is hoping to secure a strategic partner for its $4,1-billion Mary River iron ore project within the next two to three months, chairperson and acting CEO Richard McCloskey said on Tuesday. Baffinland is looking to...

Chinese urbanisation still hurtling along

While mining companies were reporting massive profit hikes for the first half of 2010 this week, two noteworthy – and partly related - pieces of information emerged out of China. Firstly, the government quietly claimed that China has toppled...

China plans to fix rare earth prices – report

China's central government plans to publish monthly prices for rare earth metals to avoid producers engaging in "cut-throat competition", China Daily reported on Thursday. China dominates production with 95% of global supply of the group of...

Australia’s Cudeco in talks with China to develop copper project

Australian copper miner Cudeco on Wednesday confirmed that it was in discussions with various Chinese entities to develop its Rocklands project, in Queensland. In a statement, Cudeco said that its “representatives are in China at present, and...

China iron-ore price hike report seen as 'posturing'

Global miners are offering Chinese steel mills a 50% rise in iron ore prices, the China Daily said Thursday, but analysts dismissed the report as posturing and predicted a rise of 65% to 70%. China has by far the world's largest steel sector,...

Chinese mining majors reportedly eyeing noncore Anglo assets

China’s largest iron and steel trader, China Minmetals Corporation, which is also a major mining group, was last week reported by China Daily to be interested in buying the zinc assets of Anglo American plc. Another journal, the Chinese-language...