article in the australian today

Miners boosted by rare earths discovery

Goldsearch and China Yunnan Copper Australia boosted by rare earths discovery

* Sarah-Jane Tasker
* From: The Australian
* January 07, 2011 12:00AM


RARE earths are again behind a sharp rise in Australian-listed mining hopefuls.

Goldsearch and China Yunnan Copper Australia have received sharp boosts on a new discovery.

China Yunnan said yesterday it had made a significant rare earth discovery at its Mt Dorothy-Mary Kathleen joint venture with Goldsearch, in northwest Queensland.

Shares in China Yunnan soared 72.73 per cent to 38c yesterday, while Goldsearch jumped 100 per cent to 0.066c.

"The discovery of the heavy rare earth element yttrium at Mount Dorothy is exciting, and the increased element associations we are seeing with heavy rare earth element yttrium suggest a very important target for future drilling after the current wet season," China Yunnan managing director Jason Beckton said.

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Mr Beckton said previous work at the Mary Kathleen joint venture had only targeted uranium, so rare earths would have remained undiscovered.

China Yunnan's cornerstone investor is Yunnan Copper Industry, one of China's largest copper producers, whose major shareholder is Chinalco.

Rare earths have been in the spotlight since China started reducing its exports of the minerals, mostly used in electronic products.