Frik Els , Editor

WawaTay News reports Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation – a community of 1,200, 600km north of Thunder Bay, Ontario – is preparing for what may be a confrontational winter after talks on traditional land use with the Ontario government broke down last week. KI walked away from negotiations after Ontario said they were unable to stop God’s Lake Resources, a junior gold mining company, from exploring in the area while the panel meets. The land under dispute at Sherman Lake was the site of a gold mine active from 1938 to 1941. KI claims there are numerous burial sites in the area. KI was involved in a similar dispute with a platinum miner a few years ago.

Latin American Herald Tribune reports Venezuela's first shipment of 160 – 180 tonnes of gold held abroad was received at Maiquetia International Airport outside Caracas on Friday night. In operation that also involved tanks and aircraft, the first of some 15,000 standard 400-ounce bars wrapped in black plastic inside a caravan of armoured vehicles escorted by 500 soldiers then made its way to the bank’s headquarters downtown. President Hugo Chavez announced in August that the South American country plans to repatriate its gold reserves held by banks in England, the US, Canada and France. The Central Bank of Venezuela already holds 154 tons of bullion domestically.

US-based Level 3 Communications, a global optic fibre network operator, this week announced that it has completed the sale of its entire coal mining business for an undisclosed amount to Ambre Energy as part of its long-term strategy to focus on core business operations. Buffett and two other investors galvanized the Colorado-based broadband company when they bought $500 million in convertible debt in July 2002 which was billed as the legendary investor's first foray into technology. Buffet cashed out a year and a half later for a 100% profit. The Oracle of Omaha's next investment was in candy company Cadbury-Schweppes.

“Chinese companies that are looking to invest in Canada do not want to become a Potash-like story themselves. Face and company reputation are important,” Peter Harder, president of the Canada-China Business Council told The Globe & Mail in an interview in Beijing this week as executives gathered for the council’s annual general meeting.

BusinessLive reports that while acid mine drainage from disused gold mines in the Johannesburg area of South Africa is well documented, according to a new study AMD from nearly 6,000 abandoned mines is acidifying rivers and streams, raising metals levels and killing fish. The study by World Wide Fund for Nature SA and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research showed that South Africa’s heavy dependence on coal for electricity had a “devastating” effect on the country’s water resources, particularly in light of the fact that only 12% of the country’s land area generated 50% of the country’s river flow. The most affected river was the Olifants which flows through the Kruger National Park in a region of the country where coal mining dates back to the 1890s.

Reuters reports schools and businesses were closed and Peruvian police fired tear gas on Friday to break up a protest at Newmont Mining and Buenaventura's proposed $4.8 billion Conga gold mine as the government tried to mediate a bitter environmental dispute over the project. Residents in the northern city of Cajamarca which has more than 200,000 residents (pictured), led by the president of the region,  say a new mine – adjacent to South America’s largest gold mine Yanacocha – will harm agriculture and livestock by relocating water supplies.  Conga would be the biggest investment ever in Peru mining.

Nautilus, the first company to explore the ocean floor for polymetallic seafloor massive sulphide deposits, announced on Friday a drilling campaign conducted at its tenements in the Bismarck Sea of Papua New Guinea has enabled the company to increase the resource estimate at its Solwara 1 project, and to declare a maiden Inferred Resource at the nearby Solwara 12 deposit. Earlier this month Toronto-listed company completed the quarter with a cash balance of $155.1 million, after successfully raising $70.5 million in the first tranche of a $98.1 million capital raising. The final tranche of C$27.6 million was received in October. The capital raising involved the issue of approximately 39 million shares at C$2.52 per share. The counter was trading down 2.9% on Friday at $2.29 giving it market worth of $448 million.

Energy Efficiency News reports internet giant Google has quietly announced that it is to retire its ‘Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal’ or RE<C initiative, which it launched in 2007 saying "other institutions seem better positioned than Google to take this work to the next level." Google spearheaded various projects and made investments in companies working on potentially ‘breakthrough’ technologies, including $168 million for a solar tower project in California and geothermal mapping. As part of its broader renewable energy programme Google has made several investments totaling more than $850 million in the US and Germany.

London-listed Coal of Africa and various environmental groups buried the hatchet on Thursday to work together to preserve Mapungubwe in northern South Africa near the company's controversial Vele opencast project. Construction of the coking coal mine was halted and the Australian company fined $1.3 million because it did not comply with aspects of environmental laws, but the green coalition has now agreed to drop all legal action. Coal of Africa Limited closed at 49.52 pence in London on Thursday up 8.2% on the previous day.

One of the more unique lots at Christie's Magnificent Jewels auction on November 29 in Hong Kong is likely to be a set of poker chips made by the Swedish artist and jeweller Kristian Ståhl. The 120 chips are made of 18K white gold and are set with a total of 5,160 calibrated top-quality diamonds, rubies and sapphires. But what makes the set truly unique is that each chip was sliced from the 1 million year old Muonionalusta meteorite that contains iron, nickel and rare earths. The set is estimated at $100,000 – $150,000 and Stahl said he was inspired to create it after his Siberian mammoth ivory dice sold well at auction last year.