Get Your Stake in this 60-Year Discovery | Australian Markets

Before the age of high-tech exploration, geologists spent hours merely looking the window of a airplane. Watching and hoping.

Observing the ground beneath and staring on the huge open panorama for any signal of a ‘geological anomaly.’

That might need been a change in color or a bizarre sample in the soil that signalled one thing completely different from the monotonous crimson dusty panorama beneath.

These rocks, tens of millions, generally billions, of years outdated, all appeared the identical from the air. So, it took a skilled eye to identify one thing distinctive in this red-stained panorama.

That’s how main discoveries had been made back then. Australia is simply too massive and too huge to discover on foot.

So it was…

Anything that appeared ‘different’ held potential for these early ore hunters. And that’s exactly how one outstanding Australian struck it wealthy in the early Nineteen Fifties.

Lang Hancock, the daddy of Gina Rinehart, noticed a geological anomaly that may make him an inductee into Australia’s most iconic corridor of fame.

As the story goes, Hancock pitched his single-engine Auster plane decrease because the clouds rolled in during an unsettling Pilbara storm.

As Hancock drew nearer to the ground, he seen a sequence of richly colored rocks—an anomaly distinguishing them from all the things else.

This would set off the world’s most vital iron ore discovery. And place Hancock on Australia’s most elite wealthy listing.

A Decade Later, Something Similar Would Occur in WA’s Goldfields Region

In 1966, a couple of geologists flew over the Laverton space in Western Australia’s iconic Goldfields area.

A area that may go on to develop into one of probably the most well-known mining districts ever, enjoying host to the notorious Poseidon Nickel increase of the late Sixties.

Except this group of airborne geologists didn’t probability upon gold, nickel, or something of seemingly great worth.

This was a phosphate discovery!

A helpful and considerably invaluable commodity, however undeserving of the Hancock story. But the true riches sitting within this ore physique lay hidden for many years.

You see, in addition to phosphate, it contained a group of metals that (on the time) held little market worth.

The airborne ‘ore hunters’ had no concept of the true worth of their Laverton discovery, and they didn’t realise that it could take over half a century for that potential to be revealed.

In 2011, mining lastly started right here, 45 years after the initial discovery.

And now, 60 years later, the metals in this discovery are embroiled in a geopolitical showdown between the world’s two largest economies.

So, what am I speaking about?

And how does it relate to our latest Diggers & Drillers advice?

Rare Earth Elements [REEs]

If you’re a long-term reader, you’ll know I’ve had lots to say about this group of metals—the kink in America’s capability to push beneficial trade phrases in opposition to China.

The West gave up mining and processing of these parts many years in the past. Meanwhile, China has steadily constructed up its provide chain, dominating round 70-90% of world processing.

For readers at my paid advisory service, we jumped into this theme early…

My advisory, Diggers & Drillers, was born from a single advice: Arafura Rare Earths [ASX: ARU].

In the years that adopted, that appeared like a unhealthy call. Rare Earth stocks slumped, forcing us to cut losses and transfer on to more speedy alternatives.

But should you’ve adopted occasions in 2025, you’ll realise we had been spot on with what we said back in 2022…

That uncommon earths would develop into the frontline battlefield in geopolitical trade tensions.

From Greenland to Ukraine to a potential mineral deal with long-term rival, Russia, Trump has been on a world uncommon earth tirade this 12 months as he makes an attempt to revive America’s provide chain for this very important useful resource.

Meanwhile, for the primary time in nearly 15 years, China deployed its only trade weapon… Cutting uncommon earth exports to the US in response to Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs.

Everything we laid out in our first version of Diggers & Drillers is NOW coming to fruition.

In response, uncommon earth stocks are lastly recovering, however have but to enter a new bull market. The price development stays unclear.

Earlier this month, it appeared a decision was being made in Geneva, as leaders from each international locations labored towards a trade deal.

That induced uncommon earth stocks to unload. But final week, these negotiations hit one other roadblock. I outlined the small print right here.

So, what may the long run maintain for Rare Earths?

As I identified, I’ve coated the uncommon earth story ever since I started with Fat Tail in 2022. Throughout that time, world trade has continued to erode.

But right here, the geopolitical development is way more seen: fragmentation, damaged provide chains, and doubtlessly larger inflation. Mining Memo has broadcast this to you in quite a few editions.

And it’s a development that gained’t be reversed simply or rapidly.

Two superpowers with vastly completely different ideologies looking for agendas that always battle.

This geopolitical showdown has been a long time in the making, and I don’t anticipate ‘deals’ to swiftly reverse tensions anytime quickly.

Critical mineral stocks stay a essential hedge in opposition to this geopolitical friction.

Click right here to study how to hedge your portfolio in opposition to this risk utilizing strategic useful resource stocks.

Regards,

James Cooper,
Editor, Mining: Phase One and Diggers and Drillers