MINING.COM MINUTE: Biggest stories of the week

The latest rant against Canada’s federal government’s borrowing practices has gone viral and not because it comes from a well-know economist, but because it is exposed by a well articulated and not camera-shy 12-year-old girl.

A group of bearded women belonging to the feminist group La Barbe, crashed last night's Melbourne Mining Club meeting to congratulate the mining industry for its exclusion of women and its lobbying against the carbon tax.

Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. ("Northern Dynasty" or the "Company") (TSX: NDM; NYSE Amex: NAK) announces that the Board of Directors of Pebble Mines Corp., the general partner of the Pebble Limited Partnership (the "Pebble Partnership" or "PLP") has approved a budget of approximately US $107 million to advance the Pebble Project in 2012, with the objective of readying PLP to initiate permitting under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) toward the end of the year.

BuaNews reports that the Higher Education and Training Minister of South Africa, Blade Nzimande, noted at the Third International Congress on TVET […]

Teachers are being offered all-paid, six-day field trips to experience the Alberta oil sands.

Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) and air-borne geophysics company GyroLAG are joining forces to bridge the skills gap between mining and engineering in South Africa, reports Mining Weekly.

“We are delighted to participate in TUT’s S&T train project. What a better way to help start young people on a track to becoming engineers, getting exposed to the industries behind two major modes of transport!” says GyroLAG CEO Dr Laurent Ameglio.

Mining giant Vale (NYSE:VALE) is having second thoughts about going ahead with its $4 billion Apolo iron ore project in southeast Brazil, which may be affected by the federal government's decision to create a nature reserve in the area.

The Mining Industry shall have more First Nations tradesmen joining the workforce in the near future. The Northern Aboriginal Machinery School (N.A.M.S.) […]

The CEO of management leadership consultancy Louis Allen, Nico de Kock, says South African mining companies need to focus more on their management capability and leadership skills, reports Mining Weekly.

Management and leadership should not be seen as separate skills, as they are interlinked and necessary to improve productivity to achieve better results, he explains. “The key driver of any effective input-throughput-output process is the manager. If a management team implements more effective planning, organising, leading and controlling practices, it will improve business results,” notes De Kock.