The only lesson to remember in 2012 is that it is going to be another volatile ride for industrial minerals prices, dragged down by the European debt crisis (see p.44) and worries over China’s property bubble, but it is not without bright spots.
This time last year it seemed like the industrial minerals market was steadily recovering from the 2008 financial crisis and was hitting an up-cycle. But the Arab Spring (including the war in Libya), the Japanese earthquake and the European debt crisis put an end to that.
And continuing protests in Russia, Syria, Kazakhstan and Nigeria (among other countries) are adding to geopolitical risk, while Iran’s upping of military rhetoric over its nuclear facilities and a change of leader in the rogue state of North Korea also inches the Doomsday clock closer to midnight.Ê
But even without unexpected shocks to the global...