Pharmaceutical companies have begun aggressively investing in resources and technologies for their own rare disease programs in an effort to advance understanding of disease biology.
Not only does China have the blessing of favorable geology (ample resources), but the country actively supported its rare earth mining operations at a time when Western miners were closing up shop.
In addition, the government banned helicopter tours after Peru's Institute of Natural Resources found low-flying aircrafts to be contributing to the disappearance of a rare species of orchid and the Andean Condor.
Among investors these days, a fellow commodity bull is about as rare as finding a positive story in the media, especially when you look at the results of metals and natural resources during the first half of 2012.