RareMetalBlog

London July 29, 2010. The Electric Mobility Age.

Yesterday we ended with the news that the UK government had exempted its subsidy program for electric cars from its austerity cuts. The subsidies become available from next year. While in America, GM had just announced details and availability of their electric car entry the Chevy Volt. Between, the newly arriving, and subsidised electric cars, e-bikes and e-trikes, e-scooters and growth of electric mobility vehicles for the elderly and infirm, we stand at the start of a world on the threshold of switching from petrol to electricity for personal mobility. To state the obvious, all these vehicles require batteries, and all require some method of recharging the batteries. To some extent or other, that requires access to the rare metals that this blog covers so well.

The dawning of the electric mobility age, is another of the reasons behind China’s decision to restrict exports of rare metals and earths. As the electric mobility age gets up to speed across the decade ahead, bad pun intended, China recognises that they will need pretty much all of their specialty resources for their own economy. So today we take a quick review of recent global events in the dawn of the age of electric mobility. It is “1910” and the age of the horseless carriage is coming into its own. While most of the public is still probably very sceptical of electric vehicles, think back to where the motor car went from 1910 to 1920.

To those readers already familiar with most of these developments, my apologies. To the others, though the UK is only one of the smaller players in the electric vehicle field, from London it really does look like, double dip recession or not, electric vehicle critical mass is here. Below, electric mobility gets the big brother treatment. Like it or not, electric mobility is here to stay.

GM Volt: Electric Car Set to Debut this Year
General Motors is set to release its electric car, the Volt, at the end of 2010. It has a purchase price around $33,500, after a $7,500 federal tax credit. However, the lease price is probably what will draw consumers in. For a 36-month lease, consumers can expect to pay about $350 a month, with $2,500 to be paid at signing. This includes 5 years of GM’s OnStar service.

The Volt is powered by a lithium-ion battery, but also has a backup four-cylinder gasoline engine......

Nissan LEAF: Another Entry into the Electric Car Market
By Reid Schram Epoch Times Staff Created: Jul 28, 2010 Last Updated: Jul 28, 2010

The Nissan LEAF is a all electric five-door hatchback designed for customers who desire a emission-free car.

The Leaf will be 100-percent battery driven and Nissan says its first electric car will be able to go 100 miles on a single charge.

The actual distance will vary, as the type of driving, weather, and weight in the vehicle can cause that number to range between about 70 to 140 miles on a charge.

Regardless of the range, the more-than-600-pound $18,000 battery will make up most of the car in both weight and price.

The battery is expected to keep 70 percent to 80 percent of its full capacity over 10 years.

Nissan has enabled the Leaf to be charged via three different modes. A standard 120 volt outlet will take 20 hours, 240 volts will take 8 hours, and a special 480 volt 125 amp connection quick charge can bring the battery to 80% of its full charge in as little as 30 minutes.

-----Nissan is extending buyers a eight-year 100,000-mile warranty on the battery......

DC 2010: BMW says Mini E drivers "delighted" with their electric cars
by Sebastian Blanco on Jan 27th 2010 at 12:55PM

----At the Washington Auto Show, though, the message was pretty much all good, all the time. One of the biggest complaints about EVs is their limited range. BMW found, though, that the Mini E's range (officially given as 100 miles, but it varies in the real world between 70 and 100) were "sufficient for most trips." The drivers got used to planning their drives with the limit in mind, said Rich Steinberg, manager of electric vehicle operations and strategy for BMW of North America. Part of getting used to the Mini E, Steinberg said, was becasue the drivers have fun in their EVs (i.e., what some people call the EV grin). In fact, the cars worked so well that, once they had the Mini E, the participating households said they used it for 90 to 100 percent of vehicle trips. In fact, all respondents said that they didn't use their other vehicles as often once the Mini E was available to them

New Smart Electric Vehicle

The Smart EV is designed to bring a breath of fresh air to the streets. It’s the natural product of smart’s unswerving commitment to the environment and innovation and not to mention fun. It isn’t available to buy just yet, but it isn’t a million miles off.

Think of a fortwo. Then think of an electric socket concealed behind what used to be the fuel cap. Picture the complete absence of exhaust fumes, so no CO2 emissions from the rear. Close your eyes and hear… no sound at all coming from the engine. Imagine no engine oil, no road tax, and no London congestion charge and you’ll start to get a sense of what really makes the new smart ev tick.
Powered solely by electricity, the smart ev can achieve the equivalent of 300 mpg – that amounts to a saving of up to 80% in fuel costs over the already highly economical smart fortwo. The ev can travel up to 71 miles between charges, which typically take around 5 hours, ideal for charging at work between your morning and evening commutes.

Honda Civic IMA Hybrid
---The 1.3 engine has the performance of a 1.8 petrol engine yet the efficiency of a 1.0 litre engine. It uses the small petrol engine to accelerate with an electric motor-generator to power the car while cruising on level roads.

Prices start from a reasonable £16,300 and for this you get a comfortable four door saloon with the performance you would expect from a car of this size. Economy figures of 61.4mpg are quoted from Honda on a combined cycle although in real life driving, especially out of town driving and on motorway driving this figure will be far off. A range of 720miles is achievable from one tank of fuel, however petrol is not the only saving. The Honda Civic Hybrid also benefits from a low insurance group, low tax due to its 109g/km CO2 emissions and like all hybrids is except from the London Congestion Charge.

The batteries never need to be plugged in, they are charged by the regenerative braking system. Other clever bits are the 7 speed CVT Auto gearbox and the fact the cars switched it self off when the car is stationary and idling saving you more fuel and not emitting any emissions. The hybrid system is covered by Honda for 8 year warranty.

28 per cent of all Lexus UK sales are hybrids
The surge in customer demand for hybrid power has reached new heights, accounting for almost one in every three new Lexus models sold in the UK. Motorists are making a considered choice to opt for the unmatched combination of lower emissions, fuel efficiency and performance offered by Lexus Hybrid Drive technology, helping push sales to record levels.

Electric car subsidy spared cuts by government
By Richard Scott Transport correspondent, BBC News
Motorists who buy an electric plug-in car from January next year will get a grant worth up to £5,000 from the government......

In electric bike news, it isn’t just Asia anymore, although Asia will probably remain the leading market. The 120 million Chinese e-bikes already on the road, mostly use lead-acid batteries. These will all be replaced in the decade ahead with newer less polluting technology. The giant markets of China and India are an end in themselves.

More Monday as our rare metals age takes over. 3D TV next?  Have a great weekend.

Graeme Irvine. London.

MEDIA: Molycorp’s IPO Aims at Chinese Grip on Metals for Smart Bombs

July 28, 2010 (Source: Bloomberg) -- Molycorp Inc. is trying to convince investors it can loosen China’s grip on everything from smart bombs to hybrid cars by reopening the largest non-Chinese deposit of rare-earth metals in the world.

The company is seeking $478 million in a U.S. initial public offering today to start its mine in the Mojave Desert, which was shut down eight years ago, its regulatory filing showed. Molycorp hasn’t made a profit since its inception in 2008 and will use the IPO to refurbish the facilities and compete with Chinese producers that supply 97 percent of the metals, which are used to make magnets found in Raytheon Co.’s Tomahawk cruise missiles and Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius sedans.

NEWS: Formation Metals Drills to Optimize Mine Design and Assess Rare Earth Elements on Cobalt Project

July 28,2010 -- VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA (Source: MARKETWIRE) -- Formation Metals Inc.("Formation") is pleased to announce that its 100% owned subsidiary, Formation Capital Corporation, U.S., (the "Company") has reported the commencement of a 5,000 foot diamond drill program in a previously untested area on the Idaho Cobalt Project. Pursuant to the approved Plan of Operations (mine permit), this verification drilling program will provide information needed to optimize mine design and production plans with the primary goal of maximizing ore production as early in mine life as possible.

The London REE Report: Is this the Big One?

Everyone who is following REEs and HREs, is well aware of next week’s coming IPO from Molycorp Inc.

“Molycorp, Inc. is a rare earth oxide (REO) producer in the Western hemisphere and own most fully developed rare earth project outside of China. The Company has made investments, and focuses on investing in developing applications for individual rare earth elements (REEs). The Company estimates total proven and probable reserves of 2.21 billion pounds of REO, with an average ore grade of 8.24%, using a cut-off grade of 5%, at its Mountain Pass mine. At its Mountain Pass facility, the Company mines, crushes, mills and separates rare earth ore to produce individual REEs. It holds a 30-year mine plan permit and an associated environmental impact report, both of which were issued during the year ended December 31, 2004.” (click here for full story)

So the question I keep getting asked is “is this the big one, the one to jump all over for the rare earths and metals ride?” The simple answer is I have no way of knowing. Priced at an expected $16 or so, the offering isn’t cheap, but then the sums involved in reactivating their Mountain Pass property to 2010 standards, are something right out of a New York investment banker’s dream bonus. $500+ million and counting, but the IPO doesn’t raise the full amount. To my old fashioned Scots conservative way of thinking, that suggests dilution at some point ahead. Despite my headline just two days ago “Getting in Early,” this is one that I think might be an exception. Of course every potential investor thinking about investing in Moly, needs to do their own due diligence and make their own up or down decision based on their own circumstances, they shouldn’t be swayed by my views or opinions, I’m only writing here about my style of decision making.

Blog: Rare Metals, CleanTech, Supply & Demand, Markets… but we should never forget about Sustainability and Community

I’ve had the great pleasure of learning a ‘tonne’ (… a Canadian mining term) about the wonders of rare earths and rare metals geology, mining and metallurgy, market development, new technologies, international trade and financial markets. It never fails to capture my interest and imagination. But at the same time, I believe it is very important that we not get caught up in the buzz and remember that all these dimensions are only beneficial if we respect and embrace the concepts of sustainability, communities and human resource development.

I’m not one who generally touts personal relationships, but I must take my hat off to my associates at Avalon and its partners in demonstrating the important values I hope many of us share…

In a jointly issued Industry Bulletin posted yesterday (July 26, 2010), Avalon Rare Metals, Foraco Canada Ltd and the Mine Training Society of the North West Territories celebrated a first, under the banner Aboriginal Driller Helper Trainee Darren Rabesca Obtains Common Core Certification

"Mr. Rabesca, a proud member of the Tli Cho First Nation, Wha Ti, Northwest Territories, successfully completed the Ontario Common Core Certification. As noted in the Industry Bulletin, Mr. Rabesca was one of eleven graduates of the Driller Helper Training program delivered in 2009 by Avalon, Foraco and the MTS, among other organizations. The objective of this program, the first ever offered in the NWT, was to help local First Nations people develop the skills necessary to find employment in the mineral exploration industry.

NEWS: Search Minerals Inc. Discovers Heavy Rare Earth Element Mineralization in the Port Hope Simpson REE District, Labrador

July 27, 2010 -- VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA (Source: MARKETWIRE) -- Search Minerals Inc  ("Search" or "the Company") (TSX VENTURE:SMY) and its wholly owned subsidiary, Alterra Resources Inc. ("Alterra"), have discovered heavy rare earth element-enriched (HREE) mineralization on the Island Prospect in the Port Hope Simpson (PHS) REE district in SE Labrador. In addition, initial results from the Fox Harbour Zone, approximately 12 km east of the Island Prospect, indicate the presence of light rare earth element-enriched peralkaline volcanic units.

MEDIA: Dacha Takes Centre Stage After Rare Earths Squeeze

July 27, 2010 -- London (Source: MineBulletin) -- Dacha Capital’s rare earths stockpile has started to look more attractive following China’s decision to slash rare earth export quotas for the second half of the year by more than 60%, market participants told MB.

NEWS: 'Unlimited' Life For New Mine

July 27, 2010 -- (Source: ABC.net.au) -- Two proposed mines in the western New South Wales region are expected to be operating within the next three years.

Alkane Resources is conducting feasibility studies into gold mining at Tomingley near Peak Hill and zirconia at Dubbo.

Managing director Ian Chalmers says changes to markets in China will help efforts to develop the mines.

NEWS: RPT-IPO VIEW- Molycorp Returns Long Bet For Investors

July 25, 2010 -- NEW YORK (Source: Reuters) -- Mining and mineral processing company Molycorp Inc (MCP.N) hopes to fill a growing need for scarce "rare earth" minerals and products, but its $450 million initial public offering, planned for next week, asks investors to take a big leap of faith.

The London REE Report: The Future

I will get round to answering readers questions about which companies are likely to turn into the next Apple or Microsoft, at least in the relative sense of the rare metals, earths and oxides sector, but first this update on what the immediate future, 5 years or so, promises to bring. But first a big qualification, despite 40 years market trading experience, I can’t see the future any better than the next person, I merely try to make reasoned informed guesses as to what I think comes next. But no one can foresee world altering events like the atrocity of 9/11, nor a natural calamity on the scale of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. Thankfully, that event though very epic and tragic wasn’t a world altering event, a sudden agricultural food failure could be. What follows next is about a world that isn’t knocked off course by events that change the path of world history.

Despite the very real chance in the west of a double dip recession next year, or probably more likely a rolling stagnation that doesn’t technically amount to a second recession in the west, it’s unlikely to alter much the rollout of the new technologies, technology that’s heavily dependent on rare metals, earths and oxides. The west’s central banks will turn back to quantitative easing, at least sufficient to keep the continuing rollout of new technology active, partly to stimulate their economies and partly to “save the planet from man-made global warming” even though I’m a sceptic on man-made global warming. Green energy resources are going to be funded one way or another, I believe, and that means a future of still encouraging sales of hybrid cars, electric cars and bikes, solar cell technology and producing electric power from windmills. 3.9G and 4G technology is also coming to our new way of keeping in touch with each other and shopping and trading with each other. Even a dinosaur like me, orders new car batteries via the internet, and replacement batteries for cordless tools. In Asia, it’s unlikely that much more than the pace of their growth and modernisation will do more than moderate slightly, in the next 5 years.

While China is attempting to rein in a economy that’s become unbalanced in the real estate sector, they are not about to reverse the successful policy of the last 30 years. Even if they wanted to, the public’s expectations are simply too high. Nearly all see the benefits modern technology has brought, and all want a lifestyle that’s closer to that of the west. In India, a similar great modernisation is underway, albeit it started later in a less frenetic fashion. Neither country is likely to slip into a technical recession in the next 5 years, and both are practically forced into being rapid adopters of the latest arriving new technologies. Few in dozy old London really understand what this means for the pace technological development over the decade ahead. More people will watch the London 2012 Olympics in India, than the entire UK and Ireland has population. The technology build-out in the sub-continent and in China, will likely drive the arriving technologies adoption rates while we in the west, think it’s us. No one in China and India is going to build much in the way of landline phone systems, nor encourage the whole population to start polluting like wasteful Americans. E-bikes, Tata’s Nano, hybrid and electric cars, wind technology, river turbines, and the very latest in 4G cell phones, are the future for the next decade I think, plus a rapidly rising middle class all across Asia. The west will advance with austerity, Asia will advance with hope.

RMB Readers Break Records & LYNAS REE Numbers Kick off Debate.

Am looking forward to Graeme's The London HREE Report in the morning when I rise, maybe he can kick off the debate on why we broke our highest audience rate today and why several rare metal companies featured on RareMetalStock moved upwards of 10%+ today, including TASMAN Metals (RareMetalBlog Sponsor) up 17.65%...

Then there was a reader who wrote us with: “I am not sure if you are aware but yesterday LYC reported massive price increase in their basket of REE's.  This is a weekly increase of approximately 16%...I am just wondering if you have heard anything in relation to why this has occurred.  Has China announced their first monthly fixed prices for REE's?"  (another source online 7-26-10: "The average rare earths composition price for Lynas' Mount Weld product has increased to US$21.43 kg/REO on a FOB basis. This is a rise of over 16 per cent in the past week.")

This individual included a link to this page on the LYNAS website, which we included for discusion as per the request: (Source: LYNAS) -- The table below shows the average annual price for a 'standard' 99% purity of individual elements and for the generic composite of Rare Earths equivalent to the Rare Earths distribution at Mt Weld. Prices are quoted in US$/kg on an FOB China basis. Note that higher purity oxides and other value added properties will attract higher prices than those shown.

Rare Earth Oxide	Mt Weld Distribution	2007	2008	2009	Q1 2009	Q1 2010	26/07/10
Lanthanum Oxide	25.50%	3.44	8.71	4.88	7.28	6.08	12.00
Cerium Oxide	46.74%	3.04	4.56	3.88	4.58	4.46	10.50
Neodymium Oxide	18.50%	30.24	31.90	19.12	14.50	27.56	42.00
Praseodymium Oxide	5.32%	29.05	29.48	18.03	14.50	26.13	38.80
Samarium Oxide	2.27%	3.60	5.20	3.40	4.75	3.40	9.50
Dysprosium Oxide	0.124%	89.10	118.49	115.67	96.46	156.50	280.00
Europium Oxide	0.443%	323.90	481.92	492.92	448.85	512.40	558.00
Terbium Oxide	0.068%	590.40	720.77	361.67	370.77	478.90	540.00
Av. Mt Weld Composition		11.59	14.87	10.32	9.91	13.13	21.43

Note: Mt Weld distribution totals 98.9%, the balance is made up of Gadolinium, Holmium, Erbium and Yttrium oxides.  Regular pricing information is not available for these metals.

Keep the blogs and information coming...just wait till you read what one of our readers is working on behind the scenes! Coming out this week...

NEWS: Alkane Investment Summary

The following is a link to the recently published research report on Alkane from the London based Edison Investment Research.

 

http://www.alkane.com.au/reports/broker-media/brokers/20100723.pdf

The London REE Report: Getting in Early

Last Monday I began my posting pointing out how China’s announcement on July 8th restricting rare metals exports was a game changer. I ended on Thursday suggesting that China is acting in a logical and highly rational way in seeking to get the rest of the world off dependency on Chinese rare metals exports, especially if it also forces the relocation of downstream processing jobs and ultimately manufacturing jobs in the new high tech sectors, out of Japan and Korea and into China. It may not be quite in the spirit of the World Trade Organisation but there’s nothing in the rules about being forced to export a product you produce to others, especially when your own industries need the product for their own manufacture. China is probably aiming at a complete export ban coming in somewhere about mid decade. That makes for a very tight timetable for the rest of the world to react to explore for, find, get permits for, and then develop into production, new rare metals resources. A process of anywhere from 3 to 10 years.

Nor is the process cheap. Molycorp Minerals LLC is going to spend the best part of half a billion dollars to bring back on-stream their Mountain Pass mine in California, including building new recycling plants for water and hydrochloric acid. Starting with a known previously worked and previously licensed deposit, if all goes to plan and the current timetable holds, a relatively simple project in the world’s leading developed country will have taken about 3 years to increase mining and processing operations from about 2,000 tons per year to 20,000 tons per year. That’s a whole lot of money, effort and management skill expended, just to get the chance to earn the money back plus more, over the next couple of decades. Outside of well developed U.S.A., projects are likely to come in far slower, and although some countries might have lower standards regarding waste recycling and trace radioactive issues, lowering costs somewhat, the initial investment process is never going to be cheap. Not that any countries nowadays are going to allow any natural resource company to seriously pollute. The examples of BP in the Gulf of Mexico and Trafigura in the Ivory Coast will ensure that.

Given the lag time and China’s timetable, there will likely be a new “gold rush” shortly ahead, to buy up all the low hanging fruit of known or inferred rare metals deposits, starting with those easiest to permit and easiest to work. For now though, when it comes to investing and investment plays, very few large pools of money think rare metals. However, I suspect that all this might be about to change in the year ahead. Two things might well result in China advancing the date of an almost total export ban, and both of them lie in the action of the west. First there is the rising call for building up a strategic stockpile in the west, particularly in America, although any bad idea started in America is sure to be copied in the EU as well.

BLOG: 3 Southern Gals, a Pile of PhDs, an Englishman, Ian + a Mercenary = RareMetalBlog

Woke up sick, I am never sick but I elected to drink a corked glass of expensive red wine last night instead of throwing it out. Displeased by a client who is clearly stiffing one of my companies for a significant amount of money, thought it would numb my pain – but instead it had me with my head over a bowl on Saturday AM wishing someone would rescue me from this bad life scene.

We are all investors on this blog and either own shares, work in the industry and/or the market so getting robbed in a difficult economy is predictable and will increase in frequency in the coming years. Learning how to ‘sniff’ out the bad fish before eating it, is a skill that one is always trying to perfect – and is a perfect metaphor on trying to select which rare metal stock is the right one to own. One of the numerous emails I received this week wrote to me and Gareth with “"invest in things you understand. If you can't summarize what an investment does in a sentence or two, look elsewhere." Gareth just wrote me to see if we could get this illustrious frequent participant on RMB we all like to become an editor and my response was of course, “yes”. I think the real reason Gareth wants this is that this writer likes him better than me and he is still snickering about the line he sent yesterday with – “soon, I’ll disappear like a winter cold sore, if not zapped first by Ms. Tracy and sent to an unused archive in blog purgatory.”

RareMetalBlog Week in Review (July 18-23, 2010)

This week, we welcomed Graeme Irvine to Rare Metal Blog with The London REE Report to look at another perspective on Rare Metals.  Graeme has been around trading markets one way or another since mid 1968, including a spell on the floor of the then London Commodity Exchange in Plantation House, before being enticed to New York for more of the same for many years.  He has seen bull markets come and go and puts his take on the Chinese Rare Metal subject this week in The London REE Report.  The REE London Report: China - Rational Not Irrational brought some good commentary including one by Gareth. 

• The REE London Report: China's Export Decision, A Game Changer
• The REE London Report: Demand for Rare Metals to Rise, China Passes USA as World's Biggest Energy Consumer.
• The REE London Report: China - Rational Not Irrational

Ian London gave us an interesting look at rare metal technology in the medical world with his post on What do Permanent Magnets, Advanced Imaging Technology & Sleek Robotics Have in Common? ... A Heart.  Ian highlights the advantages of the Stereotaxis' Magnetic Navigation System which has been designed to enhance patient care with the following potential advantages:

• More precise control of diagnostic and therapeutic devices
• Reduction in x-ray exposure to patients and medical staff
• Reduces risk of major complications from perforation of blood vessels or heart tissue

Gareth Hatch highlights a report he wrote in China's Rare Earths Game Plan: Part 2 - The Issue Of Pricing which looks at how the fixing of prices will affect buyers of rare earth oxides, and the industry in general.

Mickey Fulp, Editor of The Mercenary Geologist who wrote The Cream of the Crop for our readers this week. As an experienced geologist, he gives his take on the junior resource exploration companies along with his picks.

MEDIA: How Appreciation of the Chinese Yuan will Effect Minor Metal Prices: Part I

China will continue to steadily advance the reform of the formation of the renminbi exchange rate mechanism under the principle of independent decision-making, controllability and gradual progress," Chinese President Hu Jintao.

July 17, 2010 -- (Source: Strategic-Metal.com) -- Following China’s decision to allow its currency, the yuan, to appreciate by a token half a percent against the US dollar last month, analysts have continued to speculate what the next exchange rate move by China’s government will be and when it may come. In the first of this two-part series, we talk economics. First we discuss exchange rate regimes and the domestic economic problems arising from China’s current exchange rate policy. We then explain why the only effective resolution to China’s economic issues is to allow greater appreciation of the yuan. In Part-Two, we will discuss how appreciation of the yuan will impact the international prices for a number of minor metals.

MEDIA: Rush On for 'Rare Earths' as U.S. Firms Seek to Counter Chinese Monopoly

  RareMetalBlog Sponsor UCORE RARE METALS in NY TIMES today

July 23, 2010 -- MOUNTAIN PASS, CALIFORNIA (Source: NYTimes) -- About an hour's drive southwest of Las Vegas, on a private 2,200-acre desert patch flanked by Clark Mountain and the Mojave National Preserve, lies an idled mine many consider to be a linchpin in the U.S. push for energy independence and national security.

Today, the mine musters a limited production of rare earth oxides from ore mined years ago from a massive open pit hewn from the arid terrain.

NEWS: Dacha Reports Net Asset Value as at June 30, 2010

July 23, 2010 -- TORONTO, ONTARIO (Source: MarketWire) -- Dacha Capital Inc. ("Dacha" or the "Company") (OTCQX: DCHAF)(PINK SHEETS: DCHAF) reports its estimated net asset value at June 30, 2010 was CDN$0.38 per share based on 72,159,214 million shares outstanding. As at June 30, 2010, Dacha's physical inventory portfolio consisted of the following:

BLOG: Dacha Capital: A Discussion With Patrick Wong

Dacha Capital is a relative newcomer to the rare earths sector. Instead of owning rare earth deposits or the shares of junior mining and exploration companies, the company’s focus is on the purchasing of physical inventories of rare earths and other materials as an investment strategy. As such, the company has been subject to a lot of scrutiny, as investors and others in the sector try to develop a sense of what Dacha is about, and its role in the industry.

Given the unusual nature of Dacha’s investment philosophy, I took the opportunity recently to ask Patrick Wong, Dacha's chief investment officer, some questions on Dacha’s business model, and the company's approach to the market. We covered a range of topics, including:

• Dacha's current business model;
• Similarities and differences between Dacha and recently announced ETF funds;
• Dacha's approach to acquiring physical inventory, how such inventory is acquired and how it is stored;
• The challenge of purchasing hard assets in a non-transparent market;
• The effects of the recent announcements from China relating to export restrictions and pricing, on Dacha's business model, and the viability of non-Chinese junior mining and exploration companies.

The discussion can be accessed as a PDF file from here.

-- Gareth Hatch

NEWS: Great Western Minerals Group Launches Douglas River Exploration Program

July 22, 2010 -- SASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN (Source: Marketwatch) -- GREAT WESTERN MINERALS GROUP ("GWMG" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:GWG) (OTCQX:GWMGF) (PINK SHEETS:GWMGF)  announces it has launched its Rare Earth Elements ("REE") exploration program at its Douglas River property located in the Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan.

NEWS: Alkane Releases June 2010 Quarterly Report

 

July 21, 2010 -- Please find following the link to the Alkane website for ALKANE RESOURCE's Quarterly Report to 30 June 2010 as released to the ASX.  Please note that this file is approximately 2Mb and may take some time to download without a high-speed link.

http://www.alkane.com.au/reports/quarterly/pdf/Alkane_Jun_10.pdf