Canada tightens takeover rules for critical minerals

China could take a page out of Nautilus Minerals' playbook and begin exploring for undersea polymetallic sulphide deposits.

In what it seems a move towards exiting the aluminum wire business, diversified miner Rio Tinto (LON & NYSE:RIO) announced it is selling its U.S.-based wire and cable business Alcan Cable to American company General Cable (NYSE: BGC) for $185 million.

A protest against London 2012 sponsor Rio Tinto (LON & NTSE:RIO), which has supplied the metal to make the Olympic and Paralympic medals, welcomed the company’s shareholders this morning in Brisbane, Australia, where the annual meeting of the company’s board was taking place.

BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) added to market rumors that its nickel business is not relevant for the miner anymore by announcing yesterday it had merged the stainless steel materials unit with another struggling division: aluminum.

Brazil's aluminum output in March went up 3.7% to 125,000 tonnes, according to the national aluminum association, Abal.

Due to an oversupply in the Atlantic region, the world's third-largest producer of aluminum, Alcoa, announced that it was cutting 390,000 tonnes of production of alumina.

Rio Tinto Alcan, the aluminum division of Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) announced today it will close its Lynemouth aluminum smelter in Northumberland, England at the end of March, as part of its aluminum restructure plan.

London-based Vedanta Group (LON:VED) announced Saturday a merger of two of its subsidiaries, Sesa Goa and Sterlite Industries, into a new corporate entity to be named Sesa Sterlite.

Unionists from around the world will gather in the Canadian city of Alma, Quebec, from March 30 to April 1, to express their support for locked-out Rio Tinto Alcan workers who are fighting to preserve decent jobs, said international unions representatives on Wednesday.