Cecilia Jamasmie , Senior Editor

London-based giant miner Anglo American PLC (LON:AAL) announced today record $13.3-billion 2011 earnings, a 23% increase in underlying earnings a share and a 14% increase in annual operating profits to $11.1 billion.

Xstrata, one of the world's largest thermal coal exporters, announced today that it has completed the sale of two Mpumalanga collieries to black economic-empowered (BEE) group Imbawula, for an unrevealed sum.

Barrick Gold Corp. (TSX:ABX), the world’s biggest gold miner, announced that profit slipped in the fourth quarter as the company booked US$153-million in various after-tax charges tied to redundant power assets and its investment portfolio.

Gold mining in Colombia is shining bright as major gold players are expected to invest U.S. $ 2,100 million by 2015, reports local newspaper La Republica.

Unionists from around the world will gather in the Canadian city of Alma, Quebec, from March 30 to April 1, to express their support for locked-out Rio Tinto Alcan workers who are fighting to preserve decent jobs, said international unions representatives on Wednesday.

Peru’s long-running Conga mine dispute moved slightly forward on Tuesday after the government appointed foreign engineers to oversee an independent review of Newmont Mining Corp.'s stalled $4.8 billion gold project, reports La Republica.

Canadian junior gold miner Golden Predator Corp. (TSX:GPD) has agreed to buy the Brewery Creek project in the Yukon from Alexco Resource Corp. (TSX:AXR) in a cash-and-stock deal worth about $8 million, announced the company today

A week after announcing substantial profits and the expansion of their vast Western Australia iron ore operations, BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) and Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) said yesterday that they would spend $US 4.5 billion on the Escondida copper mine in Chile.

Uranium exploration in Australia’s eastern state of New South Wales (NSW) may soon become a reality after Premier Barry O'Farrell's cabinet checked off on a proposal to reverse a 26-year-old ban, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

After over two months of futile negotiations behind closed doors between Chile's state-owned copper giant Codelco and global miner Anglo American, a resolution of the dispute that have seen both parties sunk in a legal battle seems far off, said Codelco's CEO Diego Hernandez to a local daily.