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

The Indian-focused miner said aluminium production rose 7% while production of its most profitable product, zinc, rose 29% which helped it take advantage of rising metal prices.

Indian-focused miner Vedanta Plc saw record aluminium production in its fourth quarter and a 29 percent jump in refined zinc from its Indian operations, helping it take advantage of rising metal prices.

Output of refined zinc, the group’s most profitable product, was 194,000 tonnes in the fourth quarter ended March 2011 from its Indian mines, with production at its Skorpion Zinc mine in Namibia totalling...

Brazilian mining giant Vale is not preparing a bid for Canada’s Potash Corp, two sources close to Vale told Reuters on Monday.

Potash, the world’s largest fertilizer supplier, is fighting off a $39 billion takeover offer from Australian mining company BHP Billiton and is seeking a white knight.

One source with direct knowledge of the situation, asked about a possible Vale bid, said, “I’m not seeing any movement in that direction. It’s a very big operation. If there were an offer, there would have to be some kind of movement.”

A second...

Iron ore production fell last year for the first time in seven years but continuing demand for the raw material from the Chinese steel industry ensured that the volume of trade increased again, a United Nations report released today says.

Global production dropped by 6.2 per cent to 1.588 billion tons, according to the report published by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in cooperation with the Sweden-based Raw Materials Group.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., North America’s largest iron-ore producer, said it’s still in talks with customers about how they will pay for the steelmaking raw material after a four-decade-old annual price system ended.

Changes to the pricing of iron ore and coking coal are “resulting in a more fluid and uncertain near-term pricing environment for these commodities,” the Cleveland-based company said today in a statement.

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...

A major investment by a Chinese company puts a big mining project near Eureka back on track.

General Moly Mines...

Goldcorp Inc. today reported gold production of 601,300 ounces at a total cash cost(1) of $289 per ounce for the quarter ended December 31, 2009. Fourth quarter adjusted net earnings(2) amounted to $182.7 million, or $0.25 per share, and operating cash flows before working capital changes(3) for the fourth quarter was $307.6 million or $0.42 per share. For the year, Goldcorp produced 2.42 million ounces of gold at a total cash cost of $295 per ounce, generating adjusted net earnings of $588.2 million or $0.80 per share and operating cash flows before working capital changes of $1.2 billion or...