It might be the most important mining rush you've never heard of -- certainly, it's among the planet's strangest. The location is the northern Canadian wilderness, where resource firms are competing to extract a flaky mineral that might someday help solve climate change, revolutionize electronics and cure cancer.
The mineral they're after is a high-quality form of graphite. No, not the lower quality variety that goes into the end of your pencil. Large, undeveloped graphite deposits in Ontario, Quebec and elsewhere in Canada could be tapped to make a wonder material proponents say will shape the next industrial revolution.
