mineral exploration project – commodity prices – mining stock- trade and market

A six-month halt in U.S. deep-water drilling would cost 23,247 jobs, according to an estimate by Michael Bromwich, head of the agency that regulates offshore oil exploration.

Bromwich’s July 10 memo to Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar shows regulators weighed the economic affect of suspending drilling in waters deeper than 500 feet before Salazar issued a second moratorium on July 12. The memo was submitted to U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans as part of a voluminous administrative record supporting the agency’s actions.

“There is no question that the imposition...

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is likely to call an election on Saturday, broadcaster ABC reported on Friday, in a move that could seal the fate of the Labor government’s proposed mining tax.

The government aims to raise A$10.5 billion from 2012 under the watered-down 30 percent tax agreed by global miners BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata, but the conservative opposition has vowed to dump it.

Opinion polls published in Fairfax and News Ltd newspapers put Labor ahead of the conservative opposition at 52 percent versus 48 percent. For a Reuters poll trend, see:...

Fights about proper ownership of natural resources, especially mined product, have been a feature of Australian public policy debate since early settlement. Lack of consultation, arbitrariness and an overweening and greedy government famously caused the Eureka rebellion.

Fast forward to today, we have all these ingredients minus the muskets, plus retrospectivity, sovereign risk, slavering international competitors such as Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa, and a growing capital strike.

Much of the future impact of the Rudd government’s new mining tax is thought to fall on...

Essar Group said its purchase of Trinity Coal Corp., the Indian company’s first overseas coal mine acquisition, will help lock in raw materials with...

Gold Fields is the largest metal producer in Africa. The company reported net profit of the company gained increasing to 1:41 billion rand ($ 186 million) in the second quarter. Increase in profits for the three months to reach 40 percent in the price of gold higher.

Jameson Resources is preparing to wrap up the company’s feasibility on expanded mine case at the Basin Thermal Coal Mine in British Columbia, Canada next month, according to its latest quarterly report.

The Company together has identified opportunities for revised operating cost assumptions in an expanded mine case scenario with a relatively minor impact on start up capital.

Vietnam National Coal-Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin) submitted proposals to the government to raise the price of coal, because the production cost of coal used to produce an increase, especially fuel prices, labor costs and tax increment mining experience.

IAMGOLD Corporation has announced the results from an updated preliminary assessment study on its wholly owned Westwood development project in Quebec, confirming its capability to...