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According to The Australian, China is stepping up its quest for access to mineral resources in Latin America, with Chile being a key focal point. While Chile’s vibrant resources sector has long attracted international miners (most recently, see the tie-up between Chile’s Molymet and the U.S.’s Molycorp), and the country traditionally maintained close relations with Europe and the U.S., Australia’s ambassador to Chile notes a deliberate shift in allegiances on the part of Chilean government and educational institutions for more than a decade – away from their traditional close allies, towards Australia, New Zealand and Finland.

Australian junior miners have taken advantage of these ties; however, more recently, they’re facing stiff competition from China. One of China’s first forays into Chile comes via an Australian-listed company – Chinese-backed Chinalco Yunnan Copper Resources, which has high hopes of finding significant copper deposits while benefiting from the government’s decidedly pro-mining stance and strong support for junior miners. However, expect more Chinese involvement in Latin America soon.

Noting that China appears to be leaving Africa’s resource-rich regions, Matias Mori, executive vice-President of Chile’s foreign investment committee, says the country is actively “courting” interest from China, and expects deals to be signed in the near future: “China will happen, but we’re not sure when. It could be either this year or next.”

As other nations reformulate their resource policies to reflect the new realities of a global race for the world’s mineral riches, Washington, DC remains mired in gridlock and, with few exceptions, policy makers fail to acknowledge the urgency of our critical mineral supply issues. Perhaps with China moving from Africa into South America the realization that we can’t afford to sit idly on the sidelines will finally sink in.

Over the past few days, the announcement that the U.S., EU and Japan have decided to file a WTO case against China over its restrictive rare earths policies has caused quite a stir. American Resources Policy Network principal Daniel McGroarty offers his perspective in a column for Forbes.

Having previously expressed skepticism over the WTO being the appropriate forum to address the issue at RareMetalBlog, McGroarty outlines three possible outcomes of a WTO case, none of which are overly appealing. His conclusion:

Instead of suing China to force it to continue to sell us what we need – and at prices it dictates – we should focus on developing the significant domestic supply of rare earths here in America.

That would bolster the global market for these precious commodities, reducing costs from raw materials all the way across the manufacturing supply chain, and ultimately to consumers. And it would do so without embroiling us in a bitter tit-for-tat trade war with China.

To read the full piece, click here. And, for more background information, here are a few additional video resources:

Dan McGroarty discussing rare earths on the Business News Network.

McGroarty discussing rare earths on CNBC:

McGroarty discussing copper on CNBC:

It looks like we at American Resources are not the only ones noticing the increased appeal of silver – our “Metal of the Month” for March. The Gold Report interviewed several executives from the sector in a virtual roundtable for its latest issue. Here are the key points: The fundamentals behind silver are strong.   [...]

American Resources Policy Network leader appeared on CNBC’s Squawkbox yesterday to discuss rare earths and critical metals. Among other things, he said: “If you look at President Obama’s goal…of moving more quickly to…renewable energy sources…you’ve already touched on the fact that [they] require rare earths. The better way…than trying to sue China to force them [...]

In his budget address, President Barack Obama renewed his commitment to “green” energy. Whether this push will have actual policy implications for the domestic mining sector still remains to be seen. However, one area of his budget request would most definitely have an impact if enacted, spelling trouble for a number of critical metals, including [...]

The second-largest cable and wire maker in the world, Nexans SA (NEX), expects copper consumption growth in China to “rebound in the next few years on accelerating demand from the renewable energy sector and special industries.” With the power sector accounting for almost half of consumption, China is the world’s largest copper user. In an [...]

Perfectly closing out our rhenium month this week, Utah’s daily Deseret News has a piece on Kennecott Utah Copper’s $340 million “Molybdenum Autoclave Processing” project, a plant, which according to Kennecott’s vice president for projects and expansions, “will (produce) 10 percent of the world’s molybdenum.” At the same time, the vast complex in Magna, Utah, [...]

According to a recent article in the Russian daily Pravda, Russia finds itself locked in a territorial dispute that is becoming increasingly acute. The conflict over the group of four islands, which Russia calls the “Southern Kurils” and Japan calls the “Northern Territories, is the reason why Japan and Russia never signed a peace treaty [...]

Beginning today, official Washington hosts a visit from China’s Vice-President Xi Jinping, widely seen as the successor to current President Hu Jintao, who steps down later this year as head of China’s Communist Party, and cedes the presidency in 2013. The visit highlights a number of issues that make the current U.S-China relationship contentious. For [...]

In light of the recently announced investment deal between Molymet of Chile and U.S. Rare Earths miner Molycorp, which has significant strategic implications outlined by our very own Daniel McGroarty this weekend, it is only fitting that American Resources continues our ongoing educational campaign to highlight the breadth of U.S. mineral needs by designating “rhenium” [...]