Esther Tanquintic-Misa

Shipments of gold from Japan will reach 100 metric tonnes in 2011, according to Takahiro Morita, the Japan director of the World Gold Council.

China is mulling to expand its real estate tax to include more cities in 2012.

The world's demand for energy will rise 30 per cent higher in 2040 compared to 2010, according to the latest report of ExxonMobil Corporation, "The Outlook for Energy: A View to 2040."

Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto Ltd., in a bid to honor delivery contracts and supplier commitments, is mulling to start road transporting by using trucks the initial supply batch of iron ore from its Simandou project in Guinea.

Globe Metals & Mining on Wednesday announced the discovery of a new area with significant rare earth element (REE) mineralization at its Mount Muambe REE-Fluorite Project in Mozambique.

Mexican miner Grupo Mexico announced on Wednesday production output at its Buenavista del Cobre copper mine will hit 475,000 tonnes per year by 2015. The figure is a 6 per cent growth from estimates made earlier in April.

Indian nationals better ought to brace themselves for more power shortages and energy crisis as state-run Coal India Limited (CIL) announced on Wednesday production targets for the current fiscal year as contained in its annual plan have been slashed to 440 million tonnes from 453 million tonnes.This, as the federal government of India rejected CIL's demand to scale down its target output.

India is now abuzz with activity related to its annual wedding season. In almost every nook and cranny, one will find hordes of beaming brides and their families hopping from one jewelry shop to another trying to find the perfect gold jewelry that is fit to their budget.To accommodate the budget, India's gold jewelers have devised ways to sell their merchandise, to the point of tweaking the jewelry's gold content.

Two months before the traditional lunar Year of the Dragon, the Chinese are already agog in their preparations, including acquiring and purchasing gold related products, even as prices of the yellow metal have surpassed $67.69 per gram in Beijing.Latest data gathered from the website of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) disclosed gold output by the world's second-largest economy grew by 8.436 metric tonnes, a 3.87 per cent hike year on year, to reach 226.38...

From an earlier 9.4 per cent projection, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a government think tank, on Wednesday slashed to 9.2 per cent its forecast of China's GDP for 2011, citing the current sluggish economic recovery worldwide coupled with the country's tight monetary policy as well as withdrawal of stimulus measures on consumption as culprits for the growth slowdown.

Oil tumbled after a report by the US Energy Information Administration showed the American nation's supply of oil and gasoline suddenly surged by 1.3 million barrels last week.

Australian miner Thor Mining on Wednesday said it has raised some A$173,000 worth of funds to support advancement plans into its gold and tungsten projects in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Challenges in sourcing funds for new mining projects, interruptions in both new and ongoing mine production, as well as the conclusion of the Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) agreement are near-perfect ingredients for a shortage of uranium in the very near future, a top producer warns.

Term prices of uranium for November month-end closed at $51.50 per pound, a decline of $0.25 from end-October, showing yet again a fading buyer interest as opposed earlier in the month when spot prices reached higher than $4 per pound.

China's foreign trade remains unbalanced and has "unsustainable" components, a white paper released by the government Wednesday states.

At least seven manufacturing industries, including automotive, chemicals, aviation and renewable energy, are likely to face a shortage of raw materials and a slump in industrial activities, as 14 rare earths may run even shorter in the next five years.

Qatar, currently the world's top liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter at 77 million tonnes per year, stands to benefit the most from the continuing upsurge of LNG prices in the immediate and medium term in the Asia-Pacific Region.

With Europe, China's most important market for exports, already hitting recession, crippled by its countries' maddening debt troubles, the world's second-largest economy may have to consider revising its current trade policies.

China's state-owned steel maker Shougang Group, together with Malaysia's local steel maker Hiap Teck Venture Berhad, will build a $574.25 million integrated steel mill in Malaysia through a joint venture.

The WA Department of Mines and Petroleum has finally given its stamp of approval to Inpex Corp. of Japan to push the development of its $30 billion Ichthys liquefied natural gas (LNG) project off WA's north. A final decision on whether to begin construction within weeks to early next year is expected to materialize.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. will slash production capacity by almost 50 per cent next year at its Empire mine, rendering full-year 2012 production volume to fall to approximately 2.7 million tonnes, down from expected production volume of about 4.6 million tonnes this year.

More could be lost rather than gained unless the government of Ghana reconsiders the planned tariff increases on its mining sector, an industry executive said.

Global frenzy for gold, considered by many as a safe haven to guard one's personal fiscal health, still has a long way to go.

India, still hot from winning a successful bid to develop the 1.8-billion ton Hajigak iron-ore reserves in Afghanistan in November, is poised yet again to make a business proposition, this time, to develop the country's Aynak copper deposits.

When the March 2011 earthquake struck Japan and ruined its Fukushima nuclear power plants, not only did it make a global impact on the use and safety of nuclear power plants and accompanying environmental and health hazards, it also altered world market dynamics in the supplies and prices of liquefied natural gas (LNG). And as nations grow more increasingly alarmed and concerned over the planet's rising changing global weather patterns, it is not surprising that many will venture into the us....

The federal government of Zimbabwe, in a bid to improve the country's fiscal liquidity situation, demanded that foreign-owned mining firms should have their primary listings in the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE).

A new study by the International Energy Agency predicts that solar energy from solar photovoltaics, concentrating solar power and solar hot water will account for one-third of overall global energy consumption by 2060.

A new study that delved into the gold buying attitude of India showed its citizens carry gold in their households worth over $950 billion, representing 50 per cent of the country's GDP in dollar terms.

The world's largest consumer of energy, China, is poised to spend $473.1 billion on clean energy investments in the next five years.