Frik Els , Editor

Even if both Keystone XL and Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipelines are built, bitumen is expensive to extract and cannot compete with the many new shale oil plays – particularly in the Bakken oil basin where studies put the recoverable oil at 24 billion barrels – which have pushed US production to its highest level in a decade. No wonder Enbridge – busy building out its capacity in Bakken while Northern Gateway wallows in the approval process – said "it's the wild west out there at the moment."

The Keystone XL pipeline project of TransCanada Corp. should be halted because the US did not complete an environmental impact review before work started, green advocacy groups said in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday. The Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth and Western Nebraska Resources Council alleges the public process was a "sham" and that TransCanada has already started construction in the lawsuit filed in Omaha, Nebraska federal court. Governors of five of the six states the pipeline crosses have backed the project, except for the Nebraska. TransCanada has strongly denied the claims – all it did in Nebraska was "mow some grass."

Gold and gold receivables held by euro zone central banks rose by €56.8 billion to €420 billion after a quarterly revaluation, the European Central Bank said on Wednesday. Net foreign exchange reserves in the Eurosystem of central banks rose by €13.2 billion to €191.1 billion after the revaluation, the ECB said in a weekly consolidated financial statement. The combined balance sheet of the ECB and the 17 national euro zone central banks grew by €80.8 billion to €2.289 trillion, the statement showed. The euro fell against the dollar on Wednesday as worries about a Greek default persist and one day after the first European bank had to be bailed out.

Canada's North American Palladium said it plans to expand its flagship mine in Northern Ontario at a cost of around $75 million for the first phase of the project. Phase 1 of the Lac des Iles expansion should be completed in the fourth quarter of next year when the shaft will begin operating at a rate of 3,500 tonnes per day. The mine is located northwest of the city of Thunder Bay, and its primary deposits are palladium with some platinum, gold, nickel, and copper by-products. The company, which also operates two gold mines in Quebec, received a bump at the opening of trade in New York with the stock up 3.3% in a softer broader market.

Businessweek reports on the day it cleared and matched its first gold trade the London Metal Exchange which handles some 80% of global trade in metals futures, told members on Tuesday that it has receive "many" expressions of interest from potential bidders. The 134-year-old exchange is facing increased competition from other exchanges in Asia and is plagued by a backlog of industrial metals particularly aluminum that’s building at warehouses. LME-monitored warehouses contain 6.7 million metric tons of metal and at some warehouses such as Detroit it can take as long as seven months to withdraw metal. The LME is looking to start trading silver next year.

US stocks were driven down at Tuesday’s start with the Dow Jones falling as much as 250 points as Belgium's Dexia become the first Eurozone bank to be bailed out before making a dramatic about turn during the last hour of trade to end up 153 points or 1.4%. The S&P 500 dropped shortly after the opening bell only to end up 2.25% at 1,124 points, but is still down 18% over the last four months. The resource-heavy TSX composite index were almost at a two-year low before making up some of the lost ground to end down just two-thirds of a percent. Gold could not capitalize on the ongoing volatility and fell further after hours to trade at $1,623/oz. Bullion had briefly dipped below $1,600/oz before noon.

The Independent reports the first coal to be mined in Newcastle upon Tyne for more than 50 years could be dug on the site of a 21st century science park ahead of construction. Up to 60,000 tonnes of coal lie below what was a brewery until recently. The area was mined extensively in the 18th century and the various workings underneath make present-day building work perilous.

US stocks were driven down at Tuesday's start as Europe's debt troubles and the US employment outlook continued to rattle investors' nerves. The the major indexes were down for a third session and the S&P 500 Index SPX entered bear market territory, off 20% from its April high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 200 points to 10,435. The S&P 500 dropped 1.7% to 1,080 and the Nasdaq Composite Index came off lightest, down 20 points. The resource-heavy TSX composite index fell more than 2% to hit a 20-month low of 11,006 shortly after the open. Unsurprisingly the carnage was greater in the Eurozone where the major indices in London, Frankfurt and Paris all lost more than 3%. The crude oil market declined further with US futures down 2% to under $76. Gold could not capitalize on the uncertainty and traded $10 lower at $1,647/oz.

CME Group, which operates the largest  US futures exchanges, will from today increase to $500 million the amount of physical gold its US clearing members can post as collateral for margin requirements, more than double the existing $200 million. The Chicago-based firm which first accepted bullion two years ago is the latest of a number of  exchanges including IntercontinentalExchange and other financial services companies like JP Morgan that accept the use of gold as collateral, which essentially places the precious metal in the top tier of asset classes alongside government bonds and currencies. The World Gold Council is also lobbying to have the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision  do the same, which could have widespread repercussions for bullion.

Mercator Minerals was changing hands for $1.24, down 7.4% and a new year-low, at the opening of trade on Tuesday despite announcing record production at its Mineral Park Mine in Arizona. The counter has had a dismal year and so far is down 68% on the Toronto exchange in 2011 where it is worth $330 million. Production for the quarter totalled 10.5 million pounds of copper, 2.0 million pounds of molybdenum and 178,000 ounces of silver. Recoveries of copper and molybdenum also increased 7.3% and 3.2%, respectively to average 80.0% for copper and 77.8% for molybdenum.