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In line with the country’s recent policy shift towards a more active role in the global race for critical mineral resources, a German mining and commodity group has announced its plans to develop a 38,000 tonnes deposit of REEs in the East German state of Saxony.  A newly formed company called Seltenerden Storkwitz AG, which to-date has received 2.2. million Euros from German investors, will kick off drilling operations in the spring of 2012.

According to the company’s CEO, the German government has been extremely supportive of the project in the context of its new mineral commodity strategy, the implementation of which has been made a priority in spite of the fact that the political agenda remains dominated by the Eurozone crisis.

Chancellor Merkel, after inking a cooperative REE development treaty with Mongolia, has traveled to resource-rich Angola and Nigeria, and is expected to sign a raw materials deal with Kazakhstan, a country known for vast deposits of manganese, tungsten, copper and molybdenum.  Additional cooperative agreements will likely be sought with South Africa, Peru, and Chile.

Meanwhile, the formation of a “globally active profit-oriented raw materials corporation,” called the “Alliance for Securing Raw Materials,” has been kicked into high-gear – with the support of the German government, and Merkel as the “door opener” to leaders in resource-rich countries.

With resource prices remaining high and supply crunches reverberating in many areas, we can expect to see other countries and industry groupings undertake similar efforts. The big question for U.S. policy makers is: Are we aware of our own resource needs (and potential for that matter) and ready to act accordingly?

Continuing our informational campaign to highlight the breadth of our nation’s metals and minerals needs, we’re going to drill down into the utilities of and challenges associated with zinc this month.

In its ongoing efforts to satiate its growing appetite for mineral resources, China – long having enlarged its footprint in Africa – has recently expanded its focus to other parts of the world.  Latin America is beginning to play a larger role in this context, and while the immediate concern of its Latin American “loans-for-access” strategy appeared to be oil, it is once again the geological distribution of non-fuel mineral resources that has, at least in part, triggered China’s quest in Latin America.

According to a recent piece on SeekingAlpha.com, one of the main drivers in this context is – you guessed it – zinc.  Despite having a large landmass, and, according to the most recent USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries, significant deposits of zinc, these deposits appears insufficient to meet China’s growing demand. While the country’s copper shortage is reportedly most severe, zinc supply worries, according to Seeking Alpha’s interviews with Chinese mining investors, may be a close second:

The general conclusion is that many of the world’s largest zinc mines in Australia, Canada and Africa are reaching the end of their useful lives. This fact, coupled with increased demand for zinc emanating from China, and relatively few new zinc mines being developed, has led Chinese investors to seek high-quality junior zinc miners in Peru and in other parts of Latin America.