It is easy to forget with all the anticipation about the NI for Springpole that there is a major stealth play at work here on the rare earths. The Japanese need a secure supply of REEs irrespective of cost because the Chinese have Japan Inc. by the short hairs right now. They have been concerned for years (that's why so many have visited Cordero) But this soft embargo last year after the territorial conflict over islands really put the scare in them. The Chinese would love to use REEs to strangle Japanese manufactureres so they have no choice but to take manufacturing of everything from Sharp big screen TVs to Prius cars to where the rare earths are—mainland China. The article from today linked here mentions Mitsui, which is in the partnership with Gold Canyon and the Japanese government in Africa.
https://www.cnbc.com/id/46063434
I believe we will soon see more news on Malawi and an announcement that Gold Canyon is spinning out the rare earth company to GCU shareholders. Why? Because 1) the value of that REE company is lost in the excitement over Springpole; 2) gold invesotors and REE investors are different animals; and 3) it will show a sharpened management and geo focus of the two companies on their respective big plays--Springpole and Malawi. Cordero is on cold storage until Galium prices rise higher because of the cost of sulphuric acid used to extract them, but is still the largest known deposit in North America. What's lost on many investors is that in Malawi the Japanenese government will in a circuitous fashion be providing much of the funding while Gold Canyon provides the expertise of one of the world's best REE teams. In exchange, GCU gets a 33% stake. This is a sweet deal between the government of Japan and the government of Malawi for a prime resource with our brilliant native Japanese CEO in the middle as the trusted partner. A beautiful deal that's barely understood and not hyped at all, but which some I've heard say could one day be as big a deal as Springpole. https://goldcanyon.mwnewsroom.com/press-releases/gold-canyon-files-technical-report-for-its-malawi--tsx-venture-gcu-201112070751331001