Gold maintains value despite oil and stock market crash

It hasn't been long since Caterpillar Inc looked like the typical resident of the Rust Belt. Having misjudged how deep the U.S. economy would decline, the world's largest maker of construction machinery reduced its workforce by 33,000 people worldwide in 2009, closed plants and posted lower profits.

This video by mining equipment manufacturer Job Global, more educational than promotional, gives an excellent overview of longwall, versus room and pillar underground coal mining.

The source of the surge in mining investment has been quite diverse, reflecting the widespread advance in prices. For 2012, gold leads the way with $3.6 billion of capital spending. But not far behind are copper-nickel-zinc mines at $3 billion, potash at $2.9 billion and iron ore at $2.7 billion as the Labrador Trough is developed.

The world's number one diamond miner does not seem to be in need of cash. Too bad, direct exposure to diamonds has always been hard to come by and the diamond business' fundamentals continue to improve.

Times Dispatch reports that Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is not taking a position on whether a 30-year-old ban on uranium mining should be lifted.

"Resources groups and the bankers who promote them merit close scrutiny since minerals have been linked in the past with financial scandals and market manipulation, from the nickel bubble that captivated the City in the 1960s and ended in the Poseidon crash, to the Hunt brothers’ cornering of the silver market in 1980."

Zimbabwe's Black Empowerment Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, announced today it has taken majority ownership of foreign-owned mining firms, which had not already given a controlling stake to black Zimbabweans.

A recent study published by Canberra-based think tank The Australia Institute calls for a slowdown in mining investment.

Alpha Natural Resources, Inc. (NYSE: ANR) announced today that it plans to permanently close the Upper Big Branch (UBB) mine near Whitesville, W.Va.