Frik Els , Editor

Shares in Vancouver-based Great Panther Silver recovered early losses to trade in positive territory by midday Tuesday after the company reported disappointing silver output at its two 100%-owned silver and gold mines in Mexico. The counter opened down more than 3% before turning positive after announcing a 6% drop in silver production as a result of falling grades and unsold inventories at its Guanajuato operation which the company ascribes to an oversupply of concentrate on the world market. Silver Panther is still up 35% over the month after investors picked up the stock following record first quarter earnings.

Shares in Anfield Nickel's jumped more than 4% to within striking distance of a year-high on Friday after the company released the results of its economic assessment of the Mayaniquel project in Guatemala. Anfield said the project may generate approximately 700 permanent jobs and 800 direct jobs during the three year construction period and potentially $1.8 billion in taxes and government royalties payable to the Guatemalan government.

The price oil sands producers can charge fell to $96/barrel on Friday while global crude prices remained firmly around the $118/barrel level as Canadian supplies swamp the US. Canada exports two million barrels of crude to the US per day of which 1.5m come from oil sands meaning Alberta's bitumen mines are losing out on a possible $33m in revenues each and every day. Building new pipelines would remove the glut but it’s almost three years since TransCanada first applied to extend its Keystone pipeline and Enbridge’s project to pipe crude to the west coast for export to Asia will languish for another 18 months in a review process. All this while US need for crude continues to seep away and Chinese demand grows at double digit rates.

Stocks in heavyweight rare earth miners soared on Thursday with Molycorp adding 2.5% after trading up over 4% earlier and Lynas Corp wiping out losses it suffered on delays at its Malaysian refinery, gaining 4% on huge volumes. REE stocks are usually volatile but investors digested a lot of news this week: first there was the discovery of massive marine rare earth deposits which was quickly followed by deep scepticism, then the WTO ruled China’s export restrictions violate trade rules and now some analysts believe of the 150 listed REE projects only five will ever enter production.

Zimbabwe’s state-controlled Herald newspaper reported on Thursday the Harare government is investigating De Beers over claims it smuggled out gems worth "hundreds of millions of dollars" from the controversial Chiadzwa fields. De Beers spent eight years exploring the fields, but later claimed it had failed to find any meaningful deposits according to Zimabwe's deputy mines minister. Diamonds were found by villagers in Chiadzwa in 2006, leading to a frenzied diamond rush that was eventually crushed by the army. Zimbabwe's diamonds are the subject of an international ban although most industry watchers believe it is being widely flouted.

Unrest and strikes in Indonesia, Chile, Australia and Africa, a shortage of skilled workers in North America and rising labour costs all over the globe are quickly becoming the most serious downsides of a mining boom that started almost a decade ago. While a historically high overall jobless rate is masking spiking wages in the resources sector in the US, workers in emerging markets are shutting down operations of mining companies deemed not to be sharing record profits fairly.

Copper prices fell on Wednesday after China raised interest rates and Portugal’s debt joined the junk ranks but the longer term outlook for the metal remains murky. Arguments on both sides make sense: Bulls point to labour unrest at Freeport and Codelco and the vagueries of weather while the more bearish highlight Japanese smelter outages and Chinese destocking.

After an initial 5% jump, shares in Arabian American Development Co was flat at midday on Wednesday on four times usual volumes following news of a $37m injection into the Texas-based company's Saudi mine by a fund controlled by the League of Arab States. Shareholders in the 44-year old Nasdaq-listed company saw the value of their investment rise a cool $107m as a result of the transaction. The gold, silver and copper mine in a Yemen border province is the only non-government mine in the Saudi kingdom and is scheduled to begin production early next year.

Canada's biggest precious metals stocks were up an average 5.5% in late afternoon trade on Tuesday led by Endeavour Silver and Silvercorp Metals which both added around 12%. First Majestic Silver was up 9% and Silver Wheaton 6%. The index with an average market capitalization of US$7.7bn was outperforming a lacklustre broader market with bellwethers Barrick and Goldcorp also making substantial gains. Weak economic news from Europe, lingering concerns about the Greek debt crisis and media reports that China may raise interest rates have lured investors back to precious metals.

A new report by Global Data on the top 2011 oil and gas investment destinations claims as much as 22% of the world's undiscovered and technically recoverable oil and gas could lie within Arctic territories. Oil and mineral wealth coupled with the opening of new shipping routes are transforming cities and towns in the region. Apart from the Arctic and Canada's oil sands where new projects could up current production of 1.7m bpd by another 2.7m bpd, new discoveries in Ghana, Uganda and other parts of Africa which remain largely unexplored are also attracting billions in investment from foreign oil and gas companies.