mentioned in pure speculation

The part where Kasbah Resources was mentioned in todays online newspaper, theaustralian.com.au

Tokyo is apparently also of the view that tin will soon face a supply crunch similar to that in rare earths. A shortage of either would hurt Japanese industries, which is why Toyota Tsusho this week grabbed a 20 per cent stake in the Achmmach tin project in Morocco, owned by Australia's Kasbah Resources.

New mines are needed. One of the world's biggest, San Rafael in Peru, will close in 2017.

Read more on the article below:

Website: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/coal-sinking-but-not-scuttled/story-e6frg9ex-1226299768458

Coal sinking, but not scuttled
BY: ROBIN BROMBY From: Dow Jones Newswires March 15, 2012 12:00AM

COAL demand on the wane? Perhaps, but not for long.

Japan's steelmakers have negotiated new coking coal prices for the June quarter of $US206 a tonne, 12 per cent lower than in the March quarter and down 40 per cent on the same period last year.

So far as the thermal variety is concerned, this week's bad news is that the share of electricity generation from coal in the US is now at a 35-year low as utilities switch to much cheaper gas, leaving American miners free to lift exports and cause potential oversupply elsewhere.

But these are short-term considerations. If you follow what the big Asian customers are doing, they're searching for secure coal supplies for the years ahead -- which is why South Korea's SK Networks is paying a premium to control coking and steaming play Cockatoo Coal.

Also this week, Mitsui signed a deal to buy coal from the state-run eastern section of the Erdenes-Tavan Tolgoi mine in Mongolia, one of the world's largest deposits of coking coal, with a resource of six million tonnes.

Mongolia is seeking a foreign team to develop the western part. Mitsui, Itochu Corp, and the Russians, Chinese and South Koreans are all vying to be the chosen player.

Meanwhile, JX Nippon is paying $US435 million ($415m) for a 25 per cent stake in Xstrata's coking coal operations in Canada's Peace River coalfield.

And the Japan Bank for International Co-operation will lend Itochu $US620m to buy a 20 per cent stake in the La Loma and El Descanso mines in Colombia, now the world's fourth largest coal exporter.

Then there's India. This week the Mundra power station in Gujarat became the world's largest privately owned coal-fired power station, the commissioning of a fifth unit taking its generating capacity to 4620 megawatts (the whole Snowy Mountains scheme has capacity of 3800MW).

On the coking coal front, the Steel Authority of India says it expects imports to jump 50 per cent in the fiscal year beginning next month and to treble by 2020. Much of India's imports come from Australia.

Lesson from Japan

AUSTRALIA continues to take a rather cavalier attitude to its mineral wealth: just dig it, ship it, and pocket the proceeds.

Never a thought, it seems, about strategic stockpiles or downstream processing.

Japan can't afford such indulgence. The state-owned Japan Oil, Gas and Metals Corp maintains a 42-day supply of what it regards as critical metals -- nickel, chromium, tungsten, cobalt, molybdenum, manganese and vanadium. The obsession is that supply interruptions could derail Japan Inc's industrial might.

And this week Japan joined the US in taking China to the World Trade Organisation over rare-earth export restrictions.

Tokyo is apparently also of the view that tin will soon face a supply crunch similar to that in rare earths. A shortage of either would hurt Japanese industries, which is why Toyota Tsusho this week grabbed a 20 per cent stake in the Achmmach tin project in Morocco, owned by Australia's Kasbah Resources.

New mines are needed. One of the world's biggest, San Rafael in Peru, will close in 2017.

Glow on horizon

THIS week Bangladesh gave the green light for Russia to build a 2000MW nuclear power plant, while the governments of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are close to agreement on Hitachi and General Electric developing 1300MW of nuclear power to help reduce the Baltic republics' reliance on Russian electricity.

While the spot uranium price eased a little this week, to $US51 a pound, the latest report from the World Energy Council reveals that, apart from a few nuclear weak-knees (Germany, Switzerland and Italy), the non-OECD crowd is pressing ahead with nuclear schemes.

Poland, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Belarus and Jordan are among those eager to embrace uranium as a means to reduce emissions. The big catch, though, will be Saudi Arabia: if Riyadh commits, as is expected, then it could mean the installation of as much as 20,000MW of nuclear capacity. Power demand in the kingdom is expected to treble over the next 20 years.

Potash plan

ANALYSTS rarely permit themselves any levity.

Not so Roger Bade, at London's Libertas Capital. He has been looking at all the new potash projects around the world, including BHP Billiton's huge Jansen deposit, and wonders whether there will soon be so much potash around "that they will be giving it away in Tesco's (the British supermarket chain)".

He has a marketing plan: "Perhaps a 'buy one, get one free' offer on bags of potash might get the stuff shifted."