specialty metals

A few days old but interesting

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23680699-18261,00.html


Specialty metals appeal

HOWEVER, if you want to back something a lot further down the development road, then specialty metals are still appealing.

German metals and chemicals giant H.C. Starck is notifying customers worldwide of a double-digit price increase for molybdenum, tungsten, tantalum and niobium metals. It adds that the demand for these metals, especially from the electronics sector, is expected to be secular not cyclical. They added -- in case we don't understand -- that "pricing pressures will be sustained and likely increase (further)". On the tungsten front, a real supply crunch seems to be in the making as projects around the world get hobbled by environmental problems -- one in Vietnam is now more than three years behind timetable -- and older mines start to near the end of their lives. One industry source calculates that world demand of 82,000 tonnes a year is expected to reach 110,000 tonnes by 2012 but there will not be the metal to fill that need.

Queensland Ores (QOL) is expecting to ship first concentrates from its Wolfram Camp tungsten and molybdenum mine within two months, while various other players are well advanced. Thor Mining (THR) with its Molyhil moly and tungsten project and King Island Scheelite (KIS) have resources and Chinese partners even though each has a few hurdles yet to go.

Further back in the queue is Vital Metals (VML), which is looking at tungsten production by the end of 2009. It plans to produce 4000 tonnes a year -- about 5 per cent of world production.

One interesting aspect, at a time when Australia seems to be enthusiastically embracing the role of China's first economic colony in the developed world, is that VML prefers to get a US or European partner and off-take deal. With China already controlling about 80 per cent of world tungsten, the junior is looking to keep its independence.

Tungsten may be becoming like tin -- small industry, declining grades (especially in China) and problems finding new resources (and by the way, tin hit a record of $US24,585 a tonne on Friday).