China's Ministry of Commerce announced that it has granted 255 Chinese producers and trading companies licenses to export ferroalloys, including ferrosilicon, silicomanganese, ferrotungsten, ferrochrome, ferrovanadium, in 2013.

The ferroalloy exporters on the list are classified into two groups with Group A comprising 107 companies while Group B has 148. The two groups are categorized according to the types of ferroalloys they export.

In a statement on its website, the ministry did not reveal export volumes allocated to each company.

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Comment – Australia - So much for Australia catching the critical metals wave. Sure, we do have two tungsten producers but the main one is German-owned. Yes, we mine antimony -- well, actually a Canadian company does that for us. There is a tin producer, except that the operation is half Chinese-owned.

Graphite? Well, we're getting there, but slowly. Rare earths? It has been 17 years (at least) since work started on any of the current projects. Vanadium production has -- at last -- begun in Western Australia, but what a saga behind that; the deposit was found in 1982 and production was seemingly all set to go by 1999.

Can PIIGS fly again? No, that’s not a typographical error. I’m referring to Europe’s PIIGS – Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain - the continent’s sick men.

The aftermath of recession and financial crisis has left them struggling and their travails – particularly those of Greece – have hogged the economic headlines this year. Austerity and high unemployment have left their marks too. But they have also spawned a self-help mentality.

As part of this, our PIIGS are targeting what could be a huge and largely forgotten bounty of natural resources. And they are being helped in their endeavours by a handful of entrepreneurial junior explorers and miners.

Barry Hearn returns to Alexandra Palace this weekend with his latest sporting spectacle: the World Championship of Ping Pong.

If they think it is all over at the Alexandra Palace now that the PDC World Darts Championship has stepped back from the oche, they had better think again. The staff there may have just de-tacked the carpet, gathered up the Himalayas of empty pint pots and filled the lost-property room with forgotten items of fancy dress (every year several pantomime cow rear ends are left behind in the gents, at least one of which is still occupied). But the king of sporting spectacle will not be abandoning the place anytime soon. Indeed, the man behind the arrows claims things could get messy all over again at Ally Pally.

This weekend Barry Hearn returns to the arena where his tungsten tips have ruled with his latest innovation: the World Championship of Ping Pong. In characteristic style, he insists the event will not be quiet. Via use of laser lighting, a thumping disco beat and – we assume – 8,000 inebriated fans chanting “duh-duh-duh duh duh der-duh-duh-duh” at the end of every rally, he intends to turn the once gentle dining-room pastime of table tennis into an all-action must-watch television event on a par with the arrows.