Frik Els , Editor

Up 103% since the start of the year stock in Allana Potash Corp, advancing a project in Ethiopia was trading steady on Thursday after the company announced it had intersected strong potash mineralization in an area not previously drilled at its 160 square km Dallol project in Ethopia. Listed on the TSX-Venture exchange Allana's East Africa project has the backing of the World Bank and most the latest announcement comes on the heels of a string of discoveries at its land position in Dalol, part of the Danakil Depression (pictured).

Speaking at the Diggers & Dealers conference in Kalgoorlie Australia, Robert Friedland, executive chairman of Ivanhoe mines made big claims for the new mine his company is constructing in Mongolia together with major shareholder Rio Tinto. Oyu Tolgoi is now one third complete and according to Friedland would have a life of more than a century. The mine is on track to produce more than 1.2 billion pounds of copper and 650,000 ounces of gold each year. Oyu Tolgoi will also help turn Mongolia into the world's fastest-growing economy with staggering GDP growth of 35%. Just to make sure no-one has any misconceptions of the grand scale of the project Friedland boasted that Oyu Tolgoi has 14,200 builders, easily overshadowing the largest construction project in the US, the new World Trade Center with only 2,300. And just to top things off he said Ivanhoe is worth at least double the $15.6 billion valuation the market is affording it at the moment.

One protesters associated with the Radical Action for Mountain People's Survival Campaign has been arrested after climbing down from a tree platform he has been occupying at Coal River Mountain West Virginia since July 20. Becks Kolins (pictured on the left) was arrested by state police. Kolins and Catherine-Ann MacDougal climbed the trees to protest operations at the Bee Tree surface mine owned by Alpha Natural Resources, the company that bought Massey Energy following a deadly blast at one of its coal mines. McDougal says she's staying put.

The internet is fast growing into one of the Australia's strongest economic drivers, with a new report commissioned by search giant Google showing it had contributed more than $50 billion towards the country's gross domestic product last year. That sum equates to 3.6% of the economy, putting it on par with the economic value of iron ore exports according to the survey. While impressive, the figure is still dwarfed by the sums involved in iron ore mining in Australia and elsewhere, something Gina Rinehart can attest to. Rinehart, 57, is set to become the world richest person as her wholly-owned mines go into production in a couple of years, netting her a tidy $10 billion in annual profits.

December gold futures traded at another record high hitting $1,664.50 in after hours trade on Tuesday on news that US consumers spent less in June, the first decline in more than two years. On top of that personal incomes gained only slightly and most consumers were using that money to pay off debt. Some 70% of the US economy is reliant on consumer spending therefore any belt-tightening has ripple effects across the globe. The Dow Jones blue-chip index ended down more than 2% or 266 points extending its losing streak into an eighth day – the worst performance since October 2008.

Vancouver's Mesa Exploration said on Tuesday that Utah state officials granted the company a 640-acre potash lease, sending its stock up 6.5% by the close of trade. Mesa announced the lease will be incorporated into its Whipsaw potash project in Grand County that now totals 18,608 acres or 29 square miles and where thick potash beds have been intersected in gas wells at depths between 3,300 and 4,200 feet.

Canada's Sono Resources Inc announced on Tuesday that the final $100,000 cash payment for the year has been made and that Sono will now issue the vendors 6,500,000 common shares from treasury thus finalizing its purchase of 95 percent of the issued and outstanding shares of Bonnyridge (Pty) Ltd., which is the legal and beneficial owner of three mineral license blocks located in Northwestern Botswana.

Silver Falcon Mining announced on Tuesday it had cast 17 troy ounces at War Eagle Mountain, making it the first report of precious metal smelting in over 100 years at the historic Idaho site. Stock in the tiny company rose as much as 24% on triple the usual volumes on the news bringing its gains for the year to over 72%. Silver Falcon said it will now switch focus from processing the old tailings and commence with exploration activities now that weather inaccessibility is no longer a problem.

Suriname's only commercial gold mine, the Rosebel Gold Mine which is majority owned by Canada's Iamgold, has been shut down by a strike by 1,100 workers protesting new longer shift hours. Rosebel is located some 118 kilometers south of Paramaribo (pictured), the capital of the South American nation. The mine produced 395,000 ounces in 2010 at cash cost of $484 per ounce. While Rosebel is the country's only commercially operated mine, there are believed to be thousands of small scale miners operating in the tiny, impoverished country.

Businessweek quotes a confidential report prepared for South Africa's mining CEOs as saying South Africa’s ruling party is closer to some form of nationalization than at any other time since the end of apartheid. A government takeover of mines could choke investments in a country with metal and mineral reserves estimated at 2.5 trillion and lead to a collapse of the currency, the rand. Firebrand Julius Malema (pictured), the leader of the youth wing of the ruling African National Congress which often acts as kingmaker in the country’s politics, is spearheading the campaign to seize mines, farms and banks. Malema is never far from headlines in the country with racially charged comments but now an anti-corruption police unit is probing a trust fund owned by him allegedly being used to funnel payments in exchange for securing government tenders.