Frik Els , Editor

Silver Wheaton, the global number one silver streaming firm, announced on Thursday that it is revising its 2011 attributable silver equivalent production guidance from 27 to 28 million silver equivalent ounces to 25 to 26 million silver equivalent ounces. Stock in the company on the Toronto exchange ended little changed on Thursday, but is down 9.5% so far this year which means investors have taken more than a $1 billion knock. Silver Wheaton expects its 2015 attributable production to grow by 17 million ounces.

Reuters reports high crude prices have dented global oil demand in the second quarter according to oil majors BP, Shell and ConocoPhillips, in a trend likely to be repeated in the second half of the year if prices stay high. Brent oil prices spiked to $127 a barrel in April, close to the all-time high of $147. However, the price oil sands exporters receive weakened further against the global benchmark on Thursday with West Texas Intermediate fetching $97 as the first of 60 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve reach markets.

China Briefing News reports state-owned Shenhua, the leader of a joint Chinese, Mongolian, Russian, and US consortium awarded the western block of Mongolia's Tavan Tolgoi coking coal field – the world's largest – faces a rocky road ahead to bring the project to fruition. According to CBN the political structuring is typical but none of the three operators have given public explanations as to how they may proceed or even work together. While losing bidders from Brazil, India and South Korea are smarting, Japan have gone so far as to call the bidding process'extremely regrettable'. And all this while Mongolia hopes to raise as much as $5 billion privatizing Tavan Tolgoi early next year.

The Huntington News reports Thursday two protesters associated with the portentous Radical Action for Mountain People's Survival Campaign, continue to occupy trees within the Bee Tree surface mine's blasting zone, where they have stopped mining for eight days.   The Bee Tree mine is situated on the aptly named Coal River Mountain in West Virginia and is owned by Alpha Resources, the company that bought the original owners of the mine, Massey Energy which last year was responsible for the worst US mine disaster in 40-years after keeping fraudulent safety records.

Stocks of London-listed Sirius Minerals, the potash development group with assets in the US, Australia and the UK, jumped 5% on Wednesday after announcing financial results for the year to end March and raising £24.3 million. The company hopes to mine the UK’s only seam of potash and has started drilling in the North York Moors National Park where it has secured mineral rights for 631 sq km of land. Sirius said York Potash has the potential to turn it into a tier one potash producer.

Despite a flurry of mergers and acquisitions and a robust IPO market reports out on Wednesday suggest that fear is slowly replacing greed in the mining finance business. The Financial Post reports for investment bankers, the low-hanging fruit is long gone and the biggest financings are now high-risk: gold juniors in Africa, coal in Colombia and an infamous Quebec lithium play that overstated its resource. Global Mining Finance's July round-up says untrustworthy financial and resource reporting, threats of new royalty regimes, "super-profit" and carbon taxes, political turmoil, strikes and government takeovers are worrying resource investors all around the world.

The Zimbabwean reports Angloplat, the world's number one producer said it was optimistic about coming to an agreement with the Zimbabwean government over its Unki mine and Aquarius Platinum's record quarter was thanks to the performance of its Mimosa mine in Zimbabwe amid continuing talks. The government of Zimbabwe, the country with the largest platinum reserves outside number one producer South Africa, is demanding 51% of all foreign-owned mines operating in the country under its so-called indigenisation laws.

Spot potash prices for the standard grade leaving the port of Vancouver rose from $445 per tonne in May to $481 in June and $490 in July and is up US$111 since December according to the Scotiabank Commodity Price Index out on Wednesday. Scotiabank also said Canpotex, the marketing agent for Western Canada's three potash producers, is virtually sold out for the third quarter this year and a third price increase this year of $30 to $40 is likely.

Reuters reports US lawmakers approved legislation late on Tuesday setting a November 1 deadline for the Obama administration to decide the fate of a proposed $7 billion pipeline to transport Canadian oil sands crude to refineries on the Gulf coast and ease the glut in the Midwest hub. The price oil sands producers can charge for exports to the US is falling further behind the international benchmark because of the lack of pipelines and hedge funds have started to bet that the spread could go as high as $50/barrel leaving Alberta producers $75 million out of pocket per day.

Australia's Highlands Pacific and China Metallurgical Group can now power on their $1.5 billion Ramu nickel project in Papua New Guinea after a judge threw out the environmental challenge to the project's planned deep-sea disposal of tailings after an 18-month legal battle. Ramu is situated on Papua New Guinea's north-west coast and is completely built – annual production is estimated at more than 31,000 tonnes of nickel and 3,300 tonnes of cobalt for over 20 years.