At present, the Chilean National Copper Corporation currently sells 25,000t/y of refined copper in Southeast Asia, and US$150-300mn worth of copper concentrates and molybdenum in India, which does not buy refined metal due to taxes of almost 5% on cathodes. Therefore, it does not export refined copper to India. Codelco hopes to quadruple its exports to Southeast Asia and India.

At present, there are two production methods for producing molybdenum electrodes, namely the smelting method and the powder metallurgy production method. The molybdenum electrode produced by the smelting method owns high purity, low N, O and other gas content, it could reach the level of less than 10ppm, but the production cost is high. The powder metallurgy method is low-cost, but the content of C and O is too high to meet the requirements of the glass fiber industry. Therefore, a new production method for producing high-purity molybdenum electrode is required.

Australia-Malaysia rare earths producer Lynas has entered into an agreement with the US government to build a commercial light rare earth separation plant in America. Lynas is the largest non-Chinese producer of separated rare earth products and there are several other companies with smaller separation facilities operating in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. The second largest non-Chinese producer is Toronto-based Neo Performance Materials, which has plants in Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Analysis of latest tungsten market from Chinatungsten Online

China cesium tungsten bronze and tungsten bar prices remain stable in early February due to quiet trading activity with more and more companies are off duty for the holiday of Spring Festival.