Minerals | featured news

Space exploration has long been about reaching far off destinations but now there's a race to exploit new frontiers by mining their minerals. When Neil Armstrong first stepped on the Moon in 1969, it was part of a "flags and footprints" strategy to beat the Soviets, a triumph of imagination and innovation, not an attempt to extract precious metals.

A NASA rover scouting for signs of past water on Mars has found the strongest evidence yet -- a vein of gypsum, a mineral deposited by water, protruding from an ancient rock.

Investors on Friday firmly endorsed an Australian dollars 3.5 billion plan for Yanzhou Coal to buy Felix Resources Ltd. in what would be China's biggest investment yet in the Australian minerals sector.