If all this eventuates, it is a timely reminder of what can...

If all this eventuates, it is a timely reminder of what can happen in countries with unstable political and legislative jurisdictions. High risk can equal high reward.

Looks like a bumpy road for those with exposure in the area. Or is China trying to control the market again.

Could not find anything on Mineweb/CNN money/Market-Watch about this, which I thought would be big news?



Below is an article from the Australian 27 Sept 2010, "MINERS IN MONGOLIAN LAND RUSH",and depending how this plays out, could effect quite a few companies.


KELL Nielsen has looked at between 80 and 100 mineral projects in the past eight weeks. That's how it is in Mongolia these days.
Nielsen, who heads Voyager Resources (VOR), knows the race is on between mining companies to lock up ground in Mongolia, which might be best described as the Next Big Thing in the resources world.

Voyager is not a stock that has commanded all that much interest -- or support, for that matter, with its last sale at just 1.4c.

But its first pass drilling at the Daltiin Ovor project turned up some interesting intersections, including 3m at 50.59 grams/tonne gold, 4 per cent copper and 31.3g/t silver, starting just 6m below surface. Nielsen is planning to do more testing of the high-grade areas, but using a diamond drill rather than a reverse circulation one. The latter is fine for resource statements under ASX rules, but the Mongolians require diamond drilling results when applications are made for licences.

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But back to those 80-plus projects. Voyager is casting its net widely, excluding only ferrous metals and coal. Its focus so far has been copper-gold, but it is looking at base metals projects, too. And especially tin, with that metal now coming on to many investor radar screens.

Last year, Nielsen thought he would have a two-year window for picking up projects in Mongolia, but the land rush has just picked up significantly in recent months. He'll be looking to bed down deals as soon as possible.

And we hear there's mounting excitement at Aspire Mining (AKM) regarding the present drilling at its Ovoot coking coal project as the company gets near its initial JORC resource statement. It has to be big, mainly to justify building a railway line of about 500km to the remote location -- although the economics of that would be helped if other large deposits en route, including magnetite and phosphate, were also to be developed.

By the way, for those who still think of Mongolia as a basket case, the International Monetary Fund reported this month that the country had witnessed a dramatic turnaround in the past 18 months. In early 2009, growth had been stalling, international reserves were rapidly being depleted, there was insufficient financing to meet the spending needs of the government, and the banking system was under pressure. The economy was on the verge of collapse.

But look at Mongolia now, with growth for 2010 expected to come in at 8 per cent and, as the IMF summed it up, "international reserves are at an all-time high, public finances are on a sound footing, and the banking system has been strengthened".

Magnetic attraction

IT was a diamond of a week for George Sakalidis, a Perth exploration enthusiast who we have followed for some time -- generally in a benign mode, but occasionally making George hot under the collar.

First, Breakaway Research put a target price of 70c on his Magnetic Resources (MAU) against Friday's close of 38c. MAU has 6300sq km of ground in Western Australia -- most of it close to existing railways -- which are prospect for iron ore. Breakaway is enthusiastic about two projects in particular: Wubin, just 80km south of the operating Sinosteel iron ore mine and with similar types of ore on surface, and Jubuk near Corrigin.

Magnetic is targeting up to 1 billion tonnes at Wubin, with at least 50 million tonnes of direct-ship ore; the target at Jubuk is 100-200 million tonnes.

The other bit of news concerned another of Sakalidis's four companies, Image Resources (IMA). As expected, it has signed up for the first stage of a co-operation deal with Diatreme Resources (DRX) in respect of the Cyclone heavy minerals deposit in WA which covers ground owned by each company. DRX is already in bed with a Chinese company and this deal with IMA is a logical progression to raising the finance for what could be a world-class zircon operation -- especially with zircon prices soaring.

Manganese rises

ANOTHER mineral that is doing all right is manganese.

Its price went stratospheric before the GFC, reaching $US20 a dry metric ton unit. Then, post-GFC, it dipped to $US2/dmtu, but now it's back to $US8, which one explorer told us was "a great price".

It needs about 10kg of manganese alloy for every tonne of steel, so the metal is very dependent on the steel industry. It's the fourth most used metal after iron, aluminium and copper. But there aren't all that many high-grade deposits.

So keep an eye on the contenders -- including Shaw River Resources (SRR), Montezuma Mining (MZM), Groote Resources (GOT) and Aurora Minerals (ARM).

During the week we heard from Spitfire Resources (SPI) that it's about to hit the drilling again at its South Woodie Woodie project, 50km south of the operating Woodie Woodie manganese mine, the holes to go into 23 targets.

And Northern Mining (NMI) said sampling at a Northern Territory prospect had returned manganese grading at 45.6 per cent.

Tailenders

lTWO high-priority targets beats one, and that is the situation in which Modena Resources (MDA) finds itself at Padre Island, Texas. The junior announced the Dunn Deep target 10 days ago, and now says its Manzano Deep prospect could contain somewhere between 337 billion and 816 billion cubic feet of gas. These are in addition to the producing gas network bought after the previous owner went bankrupt. MDA last traded at 2.2c.

lDRILLING has begun at the Talga Talga project east of Port Hedland. This kicks off the exploration program by the recently listed Talga Gold (TLG), which had its July IPO over-subscribed. As we have noted previously, gold was first found at Talga Talga in 1894, but no meaningful drilling has ever been done. Two factors make this of interest: one, of course, was the yellow metal price touching $US1300/oz on Friday; the other is that investors seem to be renewing their interest in Australian gold plays after the West African story's big price run.

NOTWITHSTANDING that trend, the latest gold sector review from Patersons Securities favours the African story, with �buy� tags on Ampella Mining (AMX), Dragon Mining (DRA), Adamus Resources (ADU) and Noble Mineral Resources (NMG). Patersons says the discount on the last-mentioned company�s gold resource is �unjustified�. Patersons are cautiously bullish on gold, but what took our attention was the bar chart showing global gold discoveries - 90 million ounces in 1997, 50m ounces in 2000, 40m in 2006 and under 10m ounces in 2008. Draw your own conclusion.

FOR all you phosphate converts, Canada�s Scotiabank reports that prices are �on fire�. Over two weeks, diammonium phosphate climbed $US40/tonne to touch $US525. Corn grown in the US is in heavy demand despite an expected record crop because of rising use for ethanol production and exports to China where it fed to pigs. As the report notes, corn requires heavy fertiliser application. Great for phosphate. Ditto potash.


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Lol, did not think Bob Brown was this powerful, even in Mongolia?