Of these 4 minerals, of tantalum is in the position of being he greatest concern due to the fact that in the last 10 years ever increasing amounts of conflict tantalum has entered the western world, while recently there have also been significant shutdowns of western tantalum producers.

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The press release is quoted as saying:

The three samples have been analysed independently and the results show tantalum grades of 3,836 ppm, 2,697 ppm and 7,577 ppm respectively. Subject to additional sampling and assaying, which is currently taking place to accurately define the shape, average grade and tonnage of the Discovery, the current results indicate that the Discovery is significant, that the tantalum could be economic to mine and could provide at least twelve months of feedstock for the Marropino plant substantially increasing the life of this mine.

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Drilling at the near surface Queen Hill deposit has confirmed continuity of high grade tin mineralization over potentially mineable widths.

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For Gippsland’s company profile & projects, click here.

The press release is quoted as saying:

Gossan Resources Limited is engaged in mineral exploration and development in Manitoba and northwestern Ontario. It has a well-diversified portfolio of properties hosting gold, platinum group and base metals, as well as the specialty and minor metals, tantalum, lithium, chromium, titanium and vanadium. The Company also has a large deposit of magnesium-rich dolomite, the world-wide rights to the Zuliani magnesium production process, and a silica sand deposit. Gossan trades on the TSX Venture and the Frankfurt/Freiverkehr & Xetra Exchanges and has 29,117,900 common shares outstanding.

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Click here to access Gossan Resources Corporate Site

The press release is quoted as saying:

Net revenue for the second quarter was $42,569 compared to $2,849,265 for the same period in 2009. This decrease was attributable to lower gold production and the reinvestment of available cash in an ongoing intensive exploration program at the Tulawaka mine.

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Click here to access MDN Inc. Corporate Site

The press release is quoted as saying:

Dow Corning will acquire a 49% equity interest in a new joint venture entity (the “Joint Venture”) that will own the existing silicon metal operations of Timminco’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Bécancour Silicon Inc. (“BSI”). In exchange, BSI will receive net cash proceeds of $39.7 million on closing, and up to potentially an additional $10.0 million after closing subject to achieving certain performance objectives relating to production cost and capacity improvements. BSI will retain a 51% equity stake in the Joint Venture.

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The press release is quoted as saying:

Net income attributable to shareholders for the second quarter 2010 was $1.2 million, or $0.04 per fully diluted share, compared to net loss of ($9.7) million or ($0.36) per fully diluted share for the second quarter 2009. EBITDA increased 8% to $23.9 million in the second quarter 2010 from $22.2 million in the second quarter 2009.

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Click here to access AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V. Corporate Site

The recent passing of the ‘conflict minerals’ bill in the US has spiked interest in tantalum mined outside of the Democratic Republic of Congo. With the continuing rise in demand for high tech tantalum-containing products , and the supply of the metal decreasing, the end result is naturally rising prices. Tantalum scrap is in high demand and a shortage looms. Chinese buyers of the metal recently bought 80 percent of Brazil’s entire tantalum output as significant amounts of material are becoming increasing hard to come by. This is an exciting time to be part of this market.

“Offers for tantalum scrap are soaring as high as $330 per kg as the market faces a looming shortage that has brought prices for secondary metal in line with tantalum bars,” stated a report on Metal Bulletin.

Tantalum is not traded publicly on any markets. Prices are set by long-term supply contracts between mining companies and suppliers; as a result, prices are subject to instability. Contract prices for the metal have doubled in the last six months.

Some have speculated this may be a determining factor for Talison Tantalum, which in 2008 closed its Wodgina tantalum mine that supplied 30 percent of world supply, to restart production. It closed the operations as the financial crisis depressed the prices for all metals. Rumors that Talison would re-open the mine in 2010 if the prices returned to an economic level have been largely unfounded, as of now the company has no vocal plans to resume production.

“To put this into perspective, Wodgina has an annual nameplate capacity of nearly 600t of tantalum oxide, while Talison’s Greenbushes mine, also suspended, could add a further 450t. Little wonder then that the markets quickly fell into disarray once electronics manufacturers stopped buying new material and began running on their internal stocks,” reported Simon Walker, for Mining Technology.

With Talison out of the picture for the foreseeable future the two other major sources outside of the DR Congo is Fluminense,  a tantalum miner in Brazil and a member of the Metallurg Group, and Gippsland Limited’s (ASX:GIP) Abu Dabbab project in Egypt. In Gippsland’s case, the project, which has a 44.5 million tonne ore body containing tantalum, tin and feldspar, is still two years from production.

Fluminense recently sold 200,000 lbs of tantalum to a Chinese buyer for a price of $80 per pound. “Someone purchased 75 [percent] of Brazil’s output for $80, this after rejecting material from the conflict zone of the Congo,” reported Metal Bulletin, adding “the customer was China’s Ningxia Non-Ferrous. Apparently the move to buy almost all of Brazil’s tantalum production was due to, in part, the stigma of conflict minerals in the eyes of western buyers.

There are a few Canadian projects in the works as well. One is Commerce Resources’ (CVE:CCE) Blue River project in British Columbia, and the Eldor project in Quebec. However, both are not yet producing.

Supply shortages will continue to be a problem as companies deplete their stockpiles. The lack of conflict free sources of the material will also continue to drive up prices. However,  this lack of new sources combined with the fact that prices are being set by long-term contracts creates the potential that the end result may not be a price explosion, but instead a disappearance of products containing tantalum.

“Tantalum is rare enough that there aren’t alternative suppliers. If a stockpile runs out, that can mean that a set of electronic parts simply doesn’t get delivered, rather than the price simply rising,” reported Jesse Emspak, for International Business Times. He added that most companies have over one year’s worth of supply, but others may only have a three-month stockpile.

Despite this possibility, tantalum prices are expected to rise further until other sources for the metal are extracted and put into the market. As electronics manufactures stockpiles begin running out the problems will only be compounded, causing a potential price spike.

“Ron Gilerman, managing director at A&R Merchants, which trades tantalum and other exotic metals, . . . said another 50 [percent] increase in prices across the board in 2011 is in the offing,” stated Emspak.

 The goal for drilling is to identify a carbonatite-hosted REE deposit.

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For Commerce Resources company profile, click here.

The press release is quoted as saying:

This is a significant result because REE-Y-Zr were considered very difficult to recover from eudialyte due to the formation of a silica gel in the leaching step during processing.

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Click here to access Matamec Explorations Inc. Corporate Site