Copper cops play game of cat and mouse around desert convoys

London copper futures rose for a second day on Wednesday as supply worries brought on by an extended strike at the world's largest copper mine countered concerns over protracted talks in the United States to lift its debt limit. But the thin trading volumes in Asian hours and modest gains suggest investors were far from aggressive in pushing up copper prices, now trading just around 3 percent away from historic highs, given a shaky outlook for global demand. Satellite image of Escondida Mine in Chile

The tide of deaths of infants and young children from an outbreak of lead poisoning in Zamfara State, in North West Nigeria did not come like a thief in the night. The stage had been set for the tragic incident several years earlier. Increasing activities of illegal miners and improper processing of lead-contaminated gold ore within households in the community, were largely responsible for the high death toll. Image of an artisinal miner holding wolframite is from Julien Harneis. 

REX Minerals has forecast more copper from its Hillside project in SA, releasing a blueprint for a 12-year mine to almost rival Olympic Dam in size. "The conceptual study supports our view that Hillside is one of Australia's largest copper development opportunities," managing director Steven Olsen said.

The copper mining project that is intended to begin in Namosi next year will inject approximately FJ$2 billion [US$1,161,770,000] into Fiji’s economy.

The race to mine the seafloor took another step forward today. Diamond Fields International said it has completed the world's first NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate for its Atlantis II sea-floor deposit, located about 115 kilometres from Jeddah in the Red Sea. DFI has been exploring the deposit with joint venture partner Manafa International.

The value of mergers and acquisitions in the mining sector more than doubled to $96.3 billion in the first six months of the year and could top $200 billion for the whole of 2011 says a new research report. Canadian companies – both as acquirers and as the targets of buyers – dominated corporate finance activity in the first half shaking on more than a deal a day and at 325 deals accounting for almost two-thirds of all the metals and minerals transactions carried out around the world.

Bloomberg reports BHP workers in Chile voted Sunday to extend their strike at the world’s largest copper mine. Stoppages at BHP’s Australian coal operations may resume this week. Thirty thousand South African coal mine workers including Anglo American and Xstrata employees walked off the job Sunday and may be joined by 160,000 gold industry workers. Strikes that started over the weekend are impacting output from mines of diamond giant De Beers. Workers are seeking a larger slice as global producers report record earnings: Melbourne-based BHP, the world’s biggest mining company, is expected to report full-year profits of $22.5 billion next month, almost double 2010’s net income. Xstrata may report record 2011 profit of $7.3 billion and Anglo American $7.4 billion, estimates show.

A freeze on licenses to explore for minerals is no small matter in Mongolia, a country undergoing a huge resources boom, as miners such as Anglo-Australian giant Rio Tinto (RIO) and the Chinese-backed Shenhua Group compete for the right to extract coal, copper, gold, molybdenum, and uranium. It is a resource play that is expected to bring a flood of money into the impoverished country over the next decade, centered around huge mining projects such as the Shivee Ovoo and Tavan Tolgoi coal reserves, estimated to be worth $300 billion and $400 billion, respectively, and the copper and gold mine Oyu Tolgoi, worth some $300 billion. (Image is of the Nadaam Festival, traditional Mongolian wrestling in Central Mongolia. Photograph by Oksana Perkins taken on July 10, 2009 / Shutterstock.com.)

Workers at the world's biggest copper mine in northern Chile downed their tools over the weekend as part of an indefinite strike over unmet contract demands. About 2,300 workers of the Escondida mine, under majority control of British-Australian giant