Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (NYSE and TSX: RBA), the world's largest industrial auctioneer, will conduct an unreserved public auction at an off-site location in Charleston, WV on April 3, 2012, starting at 9 a.m. More than 100 pieces of mining equipment are already featured in the auction, including wheel loaders, crawler tractors, hydraulic excavators, rock trucks, articulated dump trucks and more. Bidders can participate in the auction in-person, online in real time at www.rbauction.com or by proxy.

SGS is pleased to announce the opening of our new Mobile Sample Preparation Unit (MSPU) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The MSPU expands our rock and drillcore sample preparation capacity in Burkina Faso, ahead of our major new laboratory complex being built in Ouagadougou. The MSPU will immediately add an additional 600 samples/day capacity. Coupled with this increase in sample preparation capacity has been a 60% increase in fire assay capacity at our Ouagadougou laboratory with a retooling of the fire assay lab.

New appointments to senior technical sales Management at Breaker Technology

IFS Applications has been ranked in the dominant zone for enterprise software for the mining industry by third-party analyst group Technology Evaluation Centers.

Silver’s gains for 2012 now stands at over 30% while gold added more than 180/oz in January and February. The last time the Dow closed above 13,000 was in May 2008.

Canadian resource giant Teck's Chief Executive Officer Don Lindsay told Reuters on Tuesday that concerns over the health of the Chinese economy is overstated

Lindsay's comments come despite forecasts of supply outstripping demand by at least 350,000 tonnes (some analysts put the figure as high as 539,000 tonnes) this year further putting pressure on prices.

Calgary-based oil sands exploration and production company Grizzly Oil Sands on Tuesday announced that it has closed the acquisition of the May River property from Petrobank Energy and Resources  for gross cash proceeds of  $225 million.

Thousands of protesters have been converging on Lynas Corporation's new rare earths processing facility in Malaysia according to reports. The Australian producer's website was also hacked over the weekend.

CyPlus GmbH and Evonik Degussa Mexico, both subsidiaries of Evonik Industries AG in Germany, officially announce the opening of its cyanide transloading station for CyPlus® Solid-to-Liquid Containers at its warehouse and logistics center in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora in spring 2012.