Sure, gold stocks have done great lately, but these are sub-sectors with even better performance over the last 12 months:

Zinc

Silver Explorers

Heavy Minerals

Rare Earth Minerals

Iron Explorers

Gold producers actually have been laggards, despite what is setting up to be an awesome year for cash flows and profits.

See all the sub-sector indices here: http://miningalmanac.com/indices

The Mad Hedge Funder reports via  Zerohedge on the tight supply/demand situation in rare earth elements (REE):

Interest in Rare Earths is starting to heat up in a dramatic fashion, and it something you should keep on your radar. So named because they were hard to get in the 18th and 19th century, these once obscure elements have suddenly become the focus of several converging trends in the global economy, as they are the key ingredient of magnets. There are 17 in all, divided into light (cerium, Ce, lanthanum, La, and neodymium, Nd) and heavy (dysprosium, Dy, terbium, Tb, and europium, Eu).

It turns out that you can’t build a hybrid or electric car, a wind turbine, thin film solar, LED’s, high performance batteries, or a cell phone without these elements. One Prius uses 25 kilograms of the stuff. You also can’t fight a modern war without rare earths, being essential for radar, missile guidance systems, navigation, and night vision goggles.

That’s where things get interesting. China now produces 97% of the world’s rare earth supplies, much of it coming from small mines operating by criminal gangs where it is safe to say, concerns about environmental considerations are nil. Last year China announced that it may start restricting rare earth exports, possibly banning several, it is thought, in order to force foreigners to buy more of their downstream electronic products. Such a ban could begin as early as 2012.

The world market for rare earths is tiny now, amounting to only $1.4 billion a year. But Toyota intends on doubling its production of  Prius’s from one million to 2 million units in the near future, while China and South Korea want to boost their combined electric and hybrid production by 1 million units by the end of next year. Demand for wind turbines is going off the charts, thanks to massive government subsidies in Europe and the US… (cont.)

Read the article in its entirety here, or try a search for companies with rare earth elements (select “REE”) or heavy minerals (select “heavy minerals”) using the Minerals filter.

A quick search of database shows 25 companies with REE or heavy minerals. They include, off the top of the list in alphabetical order:

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There are a bunch more… just filter the database yourself to see.