I was never good at chinese names....is the Chinese mining company mentioned in the article below the same one investing in KMK and rumored to be the takeover possibility? Anyone here know? thanks, susan

We wonder if the surge in commodity prices (and stocks) is related to a rushed dash by Chinese investors to borrow before rates go up and shove the money into a higher-yielding asset class. As mentioned yesterday, the People's Bank of China raised the yield on three-month bills for the first time since August. This may signal a tighter (anti-inflationary) monetary policy in China.

--In the meantime, however, the Chinese seem to be buying up anything that's not paper. take the Tampakan copper and gold project in the Philippines. It's a 2.4 billion tonne inferred resource which may produce around 13.5 million tonnes of copper and 15.8 million ounces of gold, according to pre-feasability studies.

--That would be a handy little resource to get your hands on. It's owned jointly, at least until this week, by Aussie-listed Indophil Resources (ASX:IRN) and global mining behemoth Xstrate, via a majority holding through another company. But yesterday Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board approved a takeover of Indophil by China's Zijin Mining Group.

--Zijin is no upstart. It's China's largest gold producer and third largest copper producer. It's bid values Indophil (including its stake in the project) at $545 million. Indophil's market cap yesterday was $491.4 million, according to Google Finance.