Molybdenum has gone from an obscure metal, to a high performer garnering the attention of the LME, and then back to an undervalued alloying metal. Once an overlooked player in the investment arena, interest in moly picked up when worldwide spending on infrastructure took off, sending the metal's price to new heights.  High prices and demand caused copper miners who produced moly in secondary production to copper to turn their focus to that metal. At the same time, junior miners and big players began exploring for primary producing moly mines.

Over the spring and summer as the general base metal complex suffered huge losses, moly's obscurity helped it hold its position.  Because purchase contracts for moly are few and far between, its price held steady at the last negotiated rate of $34/pound.  However, as the latest wave of contracts were negotiated and made, the price has been slashed to coincide with the drop in demand. Now, moly, which was holding its game is now reflecting the world economic positions and trading at around $12.00 per pound.

The sharp drop and prices has caused a slew of miners to either cut production or close operations. Large mines are the hardest hit as the drop in price makes these mines uneconomical.  Shutdowns are temporary until the price re-stabilizes.  In the meantime, there is optimism that shutdowns will change the supply/demand balance and coax prices higher. There is no doubt that prices will eventually rebound- the only question is when. 

Chile's Molymet, one of the world's top processors of molybdenum concentrates, forecasts that price of the metal will remain around $10 per lb in 2009, coinciding with a 20 per cent decline in demand.

 

Discovery of efficient catalysts is one of the most compelling objectives of modern chemistry. Chiral catalysts are in particularly high demand, as they facilitate synthesis of enantiomerically enriched small molecules that are critical to developments in medicine, biology and materials science.