conix...bejing reserves it resources...

Hi Conix,

Things could be looking good! I found this article in 'The Australia' newspaper this morning which I thought may interest you! - Pie
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Source: www.theaustralian.news.com.au

Beijing reserves its resources
Robin Bromby | November 12, 2007

WHILE we keep happily digging up our metals and shipping them out, the Chinese are taking a slightly longer term view. The Ministry of Commerce and the National Development Reform Commission have reclassified China's tungsten, molybdenum, tin, antimony and fluorite as being in the "prohibited category".

What this means is that no foreign company can get involved in mining these metals. Add this to earlier moves to raise export taxes on metals and the message from Beijing is clear: you westerners can exhaust your deposits and in 50 years we'll still have ours.

So, a company like King Island Scheelite can no longer use its expertise in tungsten to enter a joint venture in China, but Hunan Nonferrous Corp is welcomed here with open arms to take a 50-50 joint venture with KIS on King Island. Who are the suckers?

What China's move means for these metals is that prices, let alone demand, are not going to collapse. KIS is expecting to start tungsten production early next year, probably being beaten across the line by Queensland Ores and running neck and neck with Thor Mining. Paradigm Metals and Vital Metals are still exploring, the latter recently reporting a test concentrate of 78.4 per cent tungsten, well ahead of the saleable grade threshold of 65 per cent.

Over in Spain, Heemskirk Consolidated is working its Los Santos tungsten mine seven days a week instead of five and expects to be producing by March.

Cheers, Pie :-)