Counting down MINING.com’s top posts of 2011

MINING.com was re-launched in February, using more of blog-style format. Traffic has quadrupled, and we thank our readers for the support.

Measured on pageviews, here is a countdown of the top stories this year:

1. It’s worse than you think: Dr. Copper is Dead – Copper is usually a guage of economic actvity. If copper is doing well, than there is usually economic growth. However, copper inventories are low and the metal’s ability to accurately guage economic activity may be hampered.
2. New wind turbine design may give nuclear and coal a run for its money – A new wind turbine design out of Japan could triple power output and allow wind power to catch up with conventional power sources.
3. Planet’s largest clean coal project could be going up in smoke – Coal-powered energy plant using carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology suffers setback .
4. 12 years, 7 CEOs and $500 million later Europe’s largest mine may finally get built – Bulgarian gold mine, Rosia Montana, may finally get built.
5. BHP set for the mother of all digs as $30 billion Olympic Dam expansion is approved – In October the Australian government approved BHP Billiton’s plans to expand operations at the Olympic Dam Mine, but the government set up more than 100 environmental conditions on the uranium, copper and gold project.
6. Radioactive sludge seeping from hundreds of Johannesburg mines compared to Chernobyl – Thousands of people face evacuation from greater Johannesburg in the Gauteng province – the economic heartland of South Africa – due to toxic sludge from abandoned gold mines laced with high radiation levels.
7. Job openings go begging in Michigan: Caterpillar CEO – Doug Oberhelman, chairman and CEO of Caterpillar, can’t fill service technician jobs in one of the most depressed states in the U.S.
8. Miners reel after Papua New Guinea ownership bombshell – In a surprise announcement Papua New Guinea introduces a plan to hand state ownership of mineral and energy resources to landowners, a move that may prove disastrous to foreign miners developing massive projects and pushing into new regions of the resource-rich country.
   
9. Over one in ten Brits have a gold stash worth more than what they have in the bank – According to a survey by esure home insurance, British distrust of banks and savings accounts has increased to such an extent that more than one in ten in the United Kingdom now own a stash of gold valued above any cash savings.
   
10. California leads the way in gold and silver sales on eBay – EBay, which sells gold and silver, publishes buying trends broken down by state.