Right now, copper spot prices are an anemic $1.65 per pound. That’s an amazing drop from above $4 back in June.

And yet, one Chilean copper mine is actually expanding.

The mine is called Dona Ines de Collahuasi. It’s Chile’s third largest copper mine and is located in an historical copper mining area. Back in 1880, a large, high-grade copper and silver vein was found. It’s one of the world’s largest copper resources.

Right now, the mine produces roughly 440,000 tons of copper a year.

But the mine has just approved a $64 million project that will increase annual output by 30,000 tons. And that’s just the first expansion.

At the end of the first quarter of 2009, a $750 million expansion plan will boost production to 650,000 tons a year. After that expansion is complete, the mine intends to increase production to a full one million tons of copper a year by 2014.

That’s an astounding move.

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News from Asia Times Online has a tiny Caspian county rivalling Mother Russia for regional energy dominance.

In an announcement on October 13, British consultant group Gaffney, Cline & Associates valued Turkmenistan’s natural gas resources for its new Yoloten-Osman field at 4 trillion cubic meters… at least.

On the high side of the estimate, this field could contain as much as 14 trillion cubic meters.

The U.S. consumes 604 billion cubic meters a year, so this is a massive find! It’s also five times the size of Turkmenistan’s previous favorite field.

This new reserve estimate came as a big shock to Russia’s Gazprom (GAZP:Russia), who’d picked up a giant contract with Turkmenistan’s state-owned energy company, Turkmengaz. The contract, signed on July 25 earlier this year, meant Turkmenistan would export 50 billion cubic meters a year to Russia through 2009. Gazprom needs these exports to meet its contracts with Europe, as the company exports about two-thirds of its total production.

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I’ve taken some time to get away from the fabulous city of Prague, the cultural and financial center of the Czech Republic, to dig into the wilder side of the country.

I took a three hour train ride to Teplice mab Metuji, right on the border with Poland. This little town is known for its sandstone monoliths, which are very similar to the formations in Bryce Canyon, Utah. The park was really beautiful, especially with the mist and drizzle hanging deep in the pine trees.

Anyone taking a trip to Prague should set aside the time to get up here and unwind…

After a nice hike, I hit the restaurant, or resterace, of my hotel. There I hooked up with some fellow travelers for a game of cards. They taught me how to play “Screw Your Neighbor”.

It’s not a hard game to learn, and I did well, but as I sat and thought about it, I found it very ironic that I was playing a game called “Screw Your Neighbor” and in the morning I would be heading on to Krakow, Poland.

You see, Poland’s being given the evil eye right now. Russia is a bit peeved that the former Soviet state agreed to the U.S. plan for a defensive missile shield. The Czech Republic will also build a radar system the will link in the the missile shield technology.

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An area the size of Rhode Island with a population smaller than Pawtucket has caused Russia a whole lot of trouble.

South Ossetia, with only 1,500 square miles of territory and 70,000 “citizens”, claimed independence from Georgia on November 28, 1991. Russia officially recognized the territory’s independence on August 26, 2008, twenty days after Russian troops entered the region to defend South Ossetia’s population from Georgian forces.

Less than a week later, investors in Russia were headed for the hills… And they’re still running.

The EU, currently headed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, is trying to make Russia comply with the ceasefire agreement and withdraw troops. According to a BBC news report, “Some European leaders have already warned there can be ‘no business as usual’ with Russia until the peace plan is fully implemented, and the European Union has suspended talks on a new partnership agreement with Moscow.”

That’s going to be a bit difficult when it comes to Russian energy supplies, however. Russian natural gas accounts for 40% of all EU imports.

And if conflict continues into winter, it truly could be a Cold War between Russia and the EU if the Bear turns off the spigot. That’s why the EU is rushing around the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean like mad trying to scare up energy supplies and pipeline partners.

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