BHP posts second straight year of record iron ore production, beats estimates
The world's largest listed miner said iron ore output from Western Australia on a 100% basis was 76.8 million tonnes in the three months to June 30.
Vancouver-based gold and copper explorer BCGold Corp. dropped 10% or 1c on the Toronto venture board after announcing that it closed the second tranche of its private placement for a total just shy of $1.6 million.
In a sign that raising money is much harder now than just three months ago, the number falls far short of the $2.4 million the tiny firm was hoping for when it announced the non-brokered private placement in July.
The firm hasn’t struggled to find investors in the past – sector giant Kinross holds 8% while institutions have secured more than a fifth of the company.
BC Gold (CVE:BCG) focuses on copper and gold exploration and development in under-explored historic and emerging mining districts in British Columbia and Yukon.
The company said it intends to use the proceeds of the private placement for bulk sampling, test mining and on-site milling, drilling and other exploration work on the Engineer Mine property in British Columbia; generative copper-gold exploration in British Columbia and Yukon; and for general working capital purposes.
MINING.com reported earlier in September that a record $8.5 billion will likely be spent in 2011 exploring for gold.
Research firm Metals Economics Group said gold continues to be top exploration target accounting for more than 50% of global exploration while copper will account for roughly a fifth of 2011 nonferrous exploration budgets that is expected to exceed US$17 billion. It represents an increase of about 50% from the 2010 total and a new all time high.
