Libero Copper & Gold recently announced that it has filed 32 mining claims totaling 103,578 hectares covering a significant portion of the Jurassic porphyry belt to the southwest and northeast of its Mocoa copper-molybdenum project.

Rare earth elements are found in the earth's crust and are not very rare, but they are typically found in very small quantities, are arranged over large areas, and require complex post-processing, which makes most existing deposits too expensive to mine. Rare earths are key elements used in automobiles, consumer electronics, computers, communications, clean energy, and defense systems.

Currently, China accounts for about 70% of global mining of rare earths and 85% to 90% of their processing. For the EU, China provides 98% of its supply needs. This is an issue of concern, which is too dependent on one country to supply materials such as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium, and is also a concern for the US.

Engineers at Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) have received a National Science Foundation grant to recover rare earth elements (REEs) from phosphogypsum, a fertilizer byproduct stored indefinitely in open dumps and pumped into designated lakes.