Looks like the markets have settled a bit after yesterday's blood bath when pretty much everything but commodities got clobbered. I'm not going to go on and on today about the developing reflationary economy so many of us here talk about all of the time, but based on what happened yesterday, it's probably pretty prudent investors start taking notice of commodities - even the more obscure ones. Most of us tend to focus on things like gold, silver, copper and oil. However, when you look around, investors can make money in commodities many of us simply take for granted, and others we never even really think about. Take chicken for example - yes chicken - the commodity is something most everyone around the world consumes, but virtually every retail investor out there never even considers investing in it. Look at this daily chart of Sanderson Farms (NASDAQ: SAFM) - chickens are no joke. If you'd have invested in Sanderson Farms just last November, you would have made about 50% on your money year-to-date. Not bad for buying chickens basically. However, I'm using chickens here just as an exaggerated example of where opportunities in commodities can lie when the rest of the stock market just seems a little too overpriced. Commodities are just that, they aren't going anywhere, but investors for some reason tend to prefer to put their money to work in what might end up being the next big thing. The reality is a balanced portfolio is the best portfolio, so if you like tech, or biotech, or even airline stocks, it's probably a good idea to have a little of everything - including commodities. Two commodity stocks we've been covering for a short while now are Kootenay Zinc. (OTCQB: KTNNF) (CSE: ZNK.CN) and Azincourt Uranium Inc. (OTCBB: AZURF) (TSE: AAZ.V), two stocks we think do still offer investors some nice contrarian opportunities in the junior mining commodity space. Azincourt Uranium Inc. (OTCBB: AZURF) (TSE: AAZ.V) obviously focuses on uranium exploration. However, while so many other illegitimate junior mining plays focus on areas of significant doubt, Azincourt is focused on its East Preston Project located in the highly prospective western Athabasca basin, which is generally within one of the more proven and profitable uranium mining zones in recent history. And it's not as if uranium is a dying commodity anymore either. Did you know uranium happens to be the single largest contributor to carbon-free power in the United States. All of this rhetoric about carbon footprint etc. green energy, solar and wind etc., but uranium is actually more carbon free than all of the other energy producing efforts out there, because many don't realize just how polluting it can be to make a wind turbine or a solar panel. So, whether you realize it or not, nuclear power is a huge contributor to the U.S. clean energy sector, providing reliable, carbon-free baseload power. That hasn't gone unnoticed around the world. China, the world's most populous nation, has 35 reactors up and running today. For comparison, the United States, a mature market, has around 60 nuclear power plants. But China is still trying to satisfy its citizens' demand for electricity. According to Cameco, the world's largest independent uranium miner, China has 20 more facilities under construction right now. However, those 20 reactors could be just the start. According to Energy Fuels, the giant nation has plans to build 177 more reactors. It's unlikely all of them will actually get built, but even half of that number would represent huge growth in nuclear power -- and huge growth in demand for uranium. From a trader's perspective, URA - the uranium commodity ETF - has done horribly up until recently when it started garnering interest in a resurgence of demand from countries like China looking for faster and better ways to provide their population with electricity. If you ask me, it looks like uranium could be putting in a bottom right around here, and when it comes to buying anything for the haul, who doesn't like potentially developing bottoms - especially when we know demand for the commodity in question isn't ever going away? Better yet, who wants to buy a penny stock after it's made a big run?? Kootenay Zinc. (OTCQB: KTNNF) (CSE: ZNK.CN), on the other hand, is a junior zinc miner focused on its Sully Project. Located only 30km away from the legendary Sullivan mine, ZNK's Sully project and the Sullivan Mine share some geological features. And for those who didn't know - and neither did I till I did the homework - the Sullivan Zinc Mine in Kootenay BC, CANADA has been in operation for about 100 years. The Sullivan Mine of Teck Resources was one of the world's largest SEDEX silver, lead, zinc deposits. Over its life Sullivan produced 17 million tonnes of lead and zinc and 337 million ounces of silver from 150 million tonnes of feed. At current prices value of production was US $49 Billion. What's the big deal about zinc? Zinc was one of the best performing metals in 2016 and the outlook remains strong due in part to a global supply deficit. Zinc, used for rustproofing steel in everything from auto bodies to suspension bridges, has surged in recent years as miners supply less of the ore concentrate that's refined to produce the metal, just as demand rebounds in China, the biggest user. Banks from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to Macquarie Group Ltd. see further gains, while Glencore Plc, the biggest miner of the metal, says structural deficits are back. The widely anticipated zinc mining output reduction materialized and resulted in significantly tighter physical market conditions, particularly for zinc concentrate. Confirmation of decreasing supply, in combination with better than anticipated demand conditions driven by the recovery of the Chinese real estate and global automotive market, has resulted in destocking of both zinc concentrates and metal during the year and a higher corresponding LME price. The technical picture for zinc is a compelling one. DBB is one of the ETF's most weighted to zinc - it makes up for about a third of the ETF - and when we look at what's happening with DBB, it looks to really be garnering more and more interest lately. It's probably pretty safe to assume that's going to continue too. If there's one power generating commodity that's going to clean our environment more than any other, it's going to be uranium - and if there's one commodity other than oil that the entire manufacturing world needs more of right now, it's zinc. Mark our words, at some point commodities are going to come roaring back, and when that happens, stocks in general could be moving out of favor. There's no question small junior mining penny stocks are risky, but all it takes is one sometimes and boom. Better to get them low than to be left holding the bag around their all-time highs.