Esther Tanquintic-Misa

Two African-focused miners, Randgold Resources and Harmony Gold Mining Co., have reported churning in favorable results in 2011.

Although still on the discussion table, this early, a proposal to implement changes into South Africa's mining industry that will pave the way for the imposition of a 50 per cent resource rent-tax has faced accelerating objections.

Compared with previous years, activities in pursuit of potential mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Australia's mining sector will be mostly played on by the country's mid-tier and junior mining players in 2012.

With China's economy expected to weaken to 8.5 per cent this year, global luxury goods and branded items will most likely take also a beating as Chinese shoppers most definitely will trim on big-ticket item purchases in a bid to maintain and preserve wealth inside their hands and pockets.

The foreign exchange reserves of India, the world's fourth largest economy, added $673.4 million for the week ended Jan 27, placing the country's total foreign exchange reserves now at $293.93 billion, latest data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed.

Australian exploration mining firm Xanadu Mines Ltd. wants to dispose its shares in its Mongolian-based based mine in the next six months in a bid to re-strategize its corporate operations.

China's possessions of the precious yellow metal gold may be more than what its official data had revealed.

Uranium production in 2011 from Kazakhstan, one of the countries that form Central Asia and the world's leader in volume of uranium production, had grown to 19,000 tonnes from the 17,803 tonnes registered in 2010, the country's Industry and New Technologies Ministry announced on Thursday.This, as shortfalls in global uranium supply, used to produce nuclear fuel, is seen to further increase in the coming decades, as countries like China, India and Russia, among others, race to find alte...

Uranium production in 2011 from Kazakhstan, one of the countries that form Central Asia and the world's leader in volume of uranium production, had grown to 19,000 tonnes from the 17,803 tonnes registered in 2010, the country's Industry and New Technologies Ministry announced on Thursday.

India has increased the base prices on gold and silver for travellers and individuals who import small quantities of the precious metals.

Molibdenos y Metales S.A. (Molymet) of Chile, the world's largest processor of the strategic metals molybdenum and rhenium, on Thursday signed an agreement to invest $390 million in Molycorp Inc.

Scuttled in an emotionally-charged national elections year, yet impinging on the flow of foreign direct investments, Malaysian authorities through its Atomic Energy Licencing Board (AELB) and the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti) has granted the Australian mining firm Lynas the highly coveted temporary operating licence (TOL) to proceed with the controversial $200 million rare earths processing plant in the province of Gebeng, Kuantan.

Venezuela, in a series of operations that started in November 2011, had finally completed the repatriation of its $9 billion gold reserves that were withdrawn from various foreign overseas banks.

Investors have been advised to just sit back and relax, but continue to adopt a cautionary stance, after two conflicting sets of Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) on China were revealed on Wednesday which could send premature jitters to the world economy.

If for anything, the recently concluded weeklong Lunar New Year holiday helped propel prices of gold in the Asian trading floor to rise on Tuesday, prompted by China's holiday bingeing of the precious yellow metal.

In what could be a very favourable push towards its diversification plans, the Belinga iron ore deposit, Gabon's largest iron ore project, is already likely to fall into the hands of Australian mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd. in February.

The slowing global economy could potentially affect the construction and start-up operations of BHP Billiton Ltd.'s $20 billion expansion into the Olympic Dam copper, gold and uranium mine.

Jan. 30 came and went, but rare earths miner Lynas Corp. still failed to gain approval for a temporary operating licence for its controversial LAMP advanced materials refinery in Gebeng, Kuantan, Malaysia.

Qatar, the world's biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), has earmarked costs of $25 billion to support the expansion and development of its domestic petrochemical industry over the next decade.

Plans by Rosia Montana Gold Corp. to use chemical compound cyanide to dig up some 314 tonnes of gold in the village of Rosia Montana, touted as Europe's largest gold deposit, had encountered an equally interesting two-faced type of objections in Romania - one against it and the other supporting it.

The Year of the Dragon Lunar New Year holiday not only ushered a new and magnificent year for China but also gave a new record gold buying among the Chinese.

The much awaited listing of Polyus Gold International Limited in the London Stock Exchange is now preceded by reports that the company is mulling merger talks with fellow Russian and rival Polymetal International PLC.

Crocodile Gold Corp. of Canada and Petropavlovsk of Russia, just some of the world's numerous gold miners, both eye favorable production yields of the gold metal in 2012.

A day after revealing on Tuesday that it encountered a $40-million blowout in related construction costs at its controversial LAMP advanced materials refinery plant, Australian miner Lynas Corp. faced yet another hurdle, this time, the 2,000-page feedback it received to the application for a temporary operating license it lodged before the Malaysian Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB).

Gold reserves by the Republic of Belarus in the last month of 2011 have grown to 1.21 million ounces from 1.028 million ounces in November 2011, data from the Web site of the International Monetary Fund said.

Beleaguered Australian rare earths miner Lynas Corp., whose controversial LAMP advanced materials refinery plant continues to face hurdles among the locals in Malaysia, triggering a $40 million blowout in related construction costs and yet another start-up delay, has received a much needed financial boost of $US225 million ($215 million) from investors Mount Kellett Capital Management.

For every cause there is an effect. For every action there is typically a reaction. Such is India's dilemma over its steel making production which could be potentially disturbed by its iron ore supply shortage problem.

Vancouver, British-Columbia-based gold producer B2Gold Corp. has announced its fourth quarter gold production jumped to 38,808 ounces, compared 37,000 ounces a year ago, prompting the Canadian miner to forecast higher output for 2012.

Extreme weather conditions in September that brought about heavy rains in areas surrounding its mines had slashed by 20 percent the gold production of Newcrest Mining Ltd., the country's largest gold mining company.