Cecilia Jamasmie , Senior Editor

A protest against London 2012 sponsor Rio Tinto (LON & NTSE:RIO), which has supplied the metal to make the Olympic and Paralympic medals, welcomed the company’s shareholders this morning in Brisbane, Australia, where the annual meeting of the company’s board was taking place.

Africa's largest gold miner AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) posted first-quarter earnings Thursday of $429 million, which more than double the same period last year, despite a drop in production on the year.

African Barrick Gold (LON:ABG) shares rose 6% today as the miner announced its board has approved a $185 million expansion at Bulyanhulu, its underground gold mine in Tanzania.

BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) added to market rumors that its nickel business is not relevant for the miner anymore by announcing yesterday it had merged the stainless steel materials unit with another struggling division: aluminum.

Canadian miner giant Teck Resources Ltd. (NYSE:TCK, TSX:TCK.B) is interested in entering the iron ore industry and would seek to acquire a producing asset rather than develop a mining project, chief executive Don Lindsay told Bloomberg yesterday at the Canada Economic Summit, in Toronto.

Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), the world’s largest platinum producer, launched today the first of five fuel cell-powered locomotive prototypes to be tested at its mining operations in South Africa.

Swiss commodities trader Glencore International PLC (LON:GLEN) painted a rosy outlook for the worldwide demand for raw materials this year, as China and the U.S. help offset the impact of the slump in Europe.

While 2011 was a near-record year for mining mergers and acquisitions (M&A), with over 2,600 deals worth $149 billion in the global mining sector, 2012 is not looking so good, at least not for Canada. The value of mining M&A tumbled 50% in the first quarter compared to the prior three months, with only one deal over $1 billion, said KPMG in a report.

"Martian Pink," the biggest pink diamond ever to appear at an auction, is expected to fetch more than $8 million dollars when it is sold at Christie's Magnificent Jewels Spring Sale on May 29 in Hong Kong, reports KeycTV.

Forget about carbon emissions and greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted by humans. Sauropods — the long-necked, long-tailed dinosaurs that included some of the largest terrestrial animals ever known— could have been the first to warm the Earth's climate thanks to their massive amounts of methane-producing flatulence, says Tuesday's edition of Current Biology.