Frik Els , Editor

Reuters reports the board of Brazil's Vale has approved a $6 billion expansion of its Moatize coal project in Mozambique to lift output to 22 million tonnes per year from the 11 million tonnes it expects to mine initially with first production forecast for the second half of 2014. The country's Tete province is believed to hold one of the world's largest untapped coal reserves that has been compared with Australia's coal-rich Bowen Basin. Mozambique suffered a 15-year long civil war that ended in 1992 and remains one of the poorest countries in the world, but the ex-Portuguese colony 7% economic growth this year is forecast to accelerate thanks to billions in mining and infrastructure spending. The Mozambique metical is also the world's best-performing currency.

The arrival of four tiger cubs in Tadoba – one of the country's oldest national parks – has brought cheers to wildlife lovers. However, rampant coal mining in Chandrapur and its surrounding areas pose a grave threat to tiger conservation and protection reports Hindustan Times. The Indian government has allotted more than six new coal mines in the periphery of Tadoba tiger reserve where already half a dozen coal mines are operating. Tadoba tiger reserve was in the news recently for better big cat conservation and birth of 32 tiger cubs in the area since January 2010. India's tiger population has dwindled from tens of thousands a century ago to a mere 1,411 according to the last census conducted in 2008.

TSX Venture-listed GobiMin's financial and operating results for the third quarter of 2011 showed the diversified explorer made a handsome profit on the sale of a stake in a Chinese coal project. GobiMin disposed of a 24.49% indirect equity interest in Balikun Coal Project for a total consideration of $30.35 million, recording a gain of $8.21 million. The unaudited interim financial statements also showed the company ended the quarter with $63 million in cash. GobiMin also announced its Sawayaerdun Gold Project has completed drilling works of about 30,100 meters with 84 drill holes and continues for further drilling aiming to maximize the project potential and that it has extended the deadline for obtaining the mining license of Yanxi Copper Deposit to January 31, 2012.

The Business Standard reports a senior official from India's state department of fertilizers says so far the country's effort to secure potash imports at a better price by aiding Indian companies to acquire assets abroad has not made any breakthrough. The global potash market is controlled by about 10 mainly Canadian companies and a couple of Russian producers. With no local producers, India imports more than 6 million tonnes of muriate of potash a year for its 50 million small-scale farmers. Current pricing is around the $500/tonne level and Scotiabank recently said demand is weakening and after two years of steady price hikes 2012 will see no growth.

Aecon Group, Canada largest construction firm, announced Monday it has signed a letter of intent with the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan for a project valued at over $250 million to install the interior of a new process mill at the PotashCorp mine site near Rocanville, Saskatchewan. The project will create approximately 800 jobs at the construction site said Aecon in a press statement.  Site preparation is expected to begin in early 2012 and this portion of the project is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2013. Monday's deal brings the total value of projects announced by Aecon since September to over $850 million which has given its share price in Toronto an almost 30% boost over the period.

Commodity Online reports it will be investment demand that will likely drive up the price of silver in 2012. The same macroeconomic factors that impact on gold, also affect silver. As ‘poor man’s gold’ silver offers a more accessible entry point into precious metals investment. China’s leading market for precious metals trading on Friday increased its silver margin requirements to a fresh high amid heightened volatility in precious metals. Silver on Monday shed $1.30, or 4%, to $31.12 an ounce. Silver prices so far this year have averaged $35.70, a rise of 88% year-on-year, but is down from a record high of $48.61 at the end of April.

Gold for December delivery lost over $39 an ounce, or more than 2%, to trade at $1,685.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday on Monday. The losses were on top of a 3.6% slide last week and brings the decline in the metal from its November high to $110/oz. Bullion jumped to a record $1,921.15 an ounce on Sept. 6 and has now shown 11 consecutive years of price gains, but volatility in the gold market is increasing and the gap between gold’s highs and lows this year have reached more than $600, the largest since the 1960s. Gold has averaged about $1,705 so far this quarter and $1,563 in 2011, figures compiled by Bloomberg show.

Reuters reports copper hit its lowest in nearly a month on Monday as investors, already mired in worries over Europe's debt, digested news that US plans to combat debt are in disarray and took in warnings from China about gloomy global growth prospects. While US politicians' inability to reach consensus on tackling the country's debt problems was greeted with little surprise and the Europe crisis has been foremost in investors' minds for months, the statements by China's Vice Premier overnight really knocked sentiment. Wang Qishan said that a long-term global recession is certain to happen and China must focus on domestic problems. China is the world's top copper consumer, taking in about 40% of the world's copper versus Europe that accounts for 19% of demand.

Emerging from a short and distort saga awash in cash, Silvercorp Metals on Monday announced the acquisition of SX Gold, a mining concern controlled by the Luoyang city government in northeastern China's Henan province for $22.7 million. Earlier this month the company, the largest silver miner in China, increased its quarterly dividend by 25% to 2.5 cents, after reporting a big jump in second-quarter profit and record cash flows. The stellar financial results came after a forensic accounting report showed no truth to allegations of $1 billion in accounting fraud at the company which was first alleged on September 2 by shortsellers that had built up a massive position in the stock.

The Globe & Mail reports local authorities in the Pakistani province of Balochistan refused to meet Tethyan Copper, a joint venture between Chile’s Antofagasta and Barrick Gold, for talks before rejecting a bid for one of the world's richest deposits of gold and copper at a remote site in the dry hills near the Afghan-Pakistan border, known as Reko Diq. Tethyan Copper said a “summary decision” by the restive province to reject a mining lease application for its Reko Diq project breached local rules and Pakistani law and has now filed a "notice of dispute." The company submitted a feasibility study earlier this year that indicated 22 billion lb of copper and 13 million oz of gold at the site. The Balochistan decision now paves the way for a Chinese consortium to construct a mine and processing facility.