“Nobody told me there'd be days like these,” sang the ex-Beatle back in 1980. There will be many in the mining industry who understand what he meant.

Take potash. Over the June quarter, it, along with diamonds, cobalt and tungsten, were the only mineral commodity markets to show marked improvement. But potash stocks (mainly North American) took a dive, especially in June — when, incidentally, potash prices took a noticeable upward movement for the first time in more than a year.

Iron ore. Well, it seemed to be coasting along reasonably well. Then overnight comes an email from Capital Economics in London where Ross Strachan came to this conclusion: “With steel production unsustainably high, we expect China’s mills to cut output in the coming months, causing imports of iron ore to drop back further”

Iron ore price forecasts for the present quarter range between $US80 per tonne and $110/t. There was a bit of industry upset over several recent forecasts that the price may actually dip below $80/t between now and September 30, but this week Platts was estimating a range of $100/t to $120/t.

The global economy. On the one hand, we have the Federal Reserve contemplating reducing the money printing because the world is getting over the recent dramas. Yet Capital Economics in that same overnight note says it expects China’s growth to slow to just 5% by 2015, and adding: “If we are right, this could still feel like a hard landing for commodity producers, even if it is not at a macro level for China as a whole”. So, do we commit to that new mine development, or not?

Then we have the London Metal Exchange being relatively robust one day, climbing a wall of worry the next.

After all, if diamonds, cobalt, potash and tungsten are the only real goers at the moment, then that is hardly a combination of sufficient critical mass to give the whole commodity sector a shot in the arm. Then again come the contradictions: potash benefited from a strong planting season in May, but the big potash producers in North America are closing mines for “maintenance” over the summer, although admitting that the closures will be longer than usual for that process.

We could go on all day about the contradictions with gold. It’s kaput, say many Western analysts; and the industry is cracking under the vice-like squeeze of falling prices and soaring costs. Yet in the first five months of this year, imports into China via Hong Kong totalled 413 tonnes, double the tonnage in the same period last year. There is speculation that China will account for half the gold mined and sold in the world this year. Clearly gold should, in that case, be a seller’s market. But it isn’t, is it?

And you can’t seem to be able to get much by way of a grip on the platinum group, what with the strikes and politics in South Africa. Then no one seems to know whether Russian stockpiles of palladium have been exhausted, which is rather an important point given that these have been the source of about a quarter of world supply in recent years. The Russians have not released any palladium this year, which has got some suspecting that the cupboard there is — at last — bare.

And tin? Well, it all depends on what the Indonesians do. If they clamp down on marginal producers again, then there will be a squeeze. But no one seems to know whether this will happen.

Cobalt is gripped by uncertainty as the Democratic Republic of Congo plans a ban on exporting unprocessed concentrates.

And don’t get us started on uranium. The spot price still languishes at $39.50/lb. Yet we all know — don’t we? — that China’s reactor-building program is back at full speed. And yesterday the Nikkei news service reported that four idled Japanese reactors were about to get the green light from the Nuclear Regulation Authority to start up again. The authority is sitting down next Tuesday with Shikoku Electric, Kyushu Electric and Hokkaido Electric to have a final look over their new safety plans, with the expectation that the reactors will be allowed back in service. So why is the uranium price so sick?

Has the zircon market bottomed out? No one seems certain. Tungsten and tellurium are roaring but antimony has just taken another price hit. There’s worry about weak graphite prices. Fluorspar is looking a bit crook, too.

Nobody told us it would be this way. Strange days, indeed.