Copper end use trends

The robots are being developed for nursery schools and researchers in California reported last year that toddlers even regard the more sophisticated artificial friends as human.

PARIS (Reuters) - France may extend a system aimed at encouraging people to buy more fuel-efficient cars to products such as electronics, Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo told business daily Les Echos.

"The problem with illegal dealers is growing, it's enormous now because of high metal prices," said Bjorn Grufman, President of Eurometrec, the European federation of scrap dealers.

Trends

A new study by MIT researchers demonstrates that bacteria adhere poorly to soft surfaces and stick to firm ones.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's ruling parties have reached a deal on reduced support for the solar energy sector which involves cuts of 8 percent in 2009 and 2010, and 9 percent in 2011, Social Democrat politician Hermann Scheer told Reuters.

The merger would involve OAO Norilsk Nickel (GMKN.RS) with iron-ore and steel group Metalloinvest and United Company Rusal, bauxite miner and the world's largest primary aluminum producer.

Shares in West Perth-based mineral explorer Avalon Minerals have risen 42.8 per cent after the company announced its first resource estimate for its Viscaria Copper Project, located 1200km north of Stockholm.

In late-May, two further large metal recycling projects have been announced in China as the country seeks to satisfy its burgeoning need for scrap metal given its shortfall in mineral resources. The Wuzhou Resource Recycling project has been approved to be constructed in Cangwu county in Guangxi province. The total investment in the project is 15bn Yuan. The construction is planned to cover an area of 667 hectares, divided into three stages, and will eventually create 40,000 new jobs. Separately, the Zhonghong recycling industrial park in Shenyang, Liaoning province has been completed and is to open in early June. The industrial park covers an area of 3 square kilometres and has cost 5bn Yuan to develop. It will create 10,000 employment opportunities and has dismantling capacity of 1 million metric tonnes per year.

China to boost scrap recovery for smelters and fabricators

The future of Tata's forthcoming Nano - the cheapest car in the world - could be jeopardised by rising steel prices.

Beijing is trying to reduce the country's exports of goods from heavily polluting or energy-intensive industries, especially as it faces recurring power shortages.

Last week, IBM announced a research breakthrough in photovoltaics (PV) technology that could significantly reduce the cost of harnessing the sun's power for electricity.

Brazil could be a big exporter for solar painels as the bigger producer of silicon in the world.

This is something to monitor as it could be a significant development for the region.

Colin, you are right. It could be important for Brazil and the region in the near future.

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Fedyashin) - On May 26, EU foreign ministers approved plans to begin discussing a new strategic partnership and cooperation agreement (PCA) with Russia.