Archives for April, 2012
About Earth, as used in “Rare Earth Elements” (“REE”) is an old term for oxide. Thus rare earths were historically called rare oxides. Back in the day they were a very secretive and complex group of elements. It took 153 years and numerous scientific inventions and discoveries before they were…
A new paradigm, reversion to mean, or something in between The iron ore price is something of a proxy for the price of other metals. Exhibit One below1 shows the iron ore price (China Import fines 62% Fe) in USD since 1982. The exponential increase in price from 2008 to…
Introduction Banded Iron Formation (“BIF – pronounced Biff”) is the most important source of iron ore today. It occurs on all continents and iron content can be monumental. Here in Australia, the Hamersley Range in the West is thought to have initially contained 100 trillion tonnes of iron. This is…
What Equivalent grade is the term used where mineralisation that is comprised of several metals of economic value is converted to a single metal. Typically the minor metals are converted by formula and added to the grade of the major metal. The formula can vary but is often only based…