Mining’s biggest jobs are up for grabs. Here are the contenders

Shares in Equinox Minerals (EQN.AX) jumped 7 percent in Australia on Wednesday after the copper miner accepted a $7.7 billion takeover offer from the world's largest gold miner, Barrick Gold (ABX.TO).

hina's Minmetals Resources announced Tuesday, "Following the announcement yesterday by Equinox that it will recommend that its shareholders accept an offer it has received from Barrick Gold Corporation of C$8.15 per share, MMR has decided not to pursue its planned bid for Equinox."

First Nickel Inc. (“First Nickel” or the “Company”) (TSX:FNI) is pleased to provide an update on its Lockerby Depth Project and its […]

Japan's output of rolled copper product fell 3.7 percent in March from a year earlier, its biggest fall in 17 months, after the March 11 earthquake devastated the northeast of the country and disrupted supply chains of automakers, which are big consumers of copper parts.

Has world top gold miner, Barrick Gold, given up on its principles to remain predominantly a gold producer? While the copper content of Barrick's business has been growing in recent years as the acquisition and development of some of its biggest new gold projects involve the co-mining of copper from big gold/copper porphyry type orebodies, today's announced agreement to acquire copper miner Equinox seems designed to move it even more into the polymetallic production space.

Thompson Creek Minerals has spurned an option with U.S. Energy Corp. to acquire an interest in the Mount Emmons molybdenum project in Colorado's Gunnison County. According to a story in today's Globe and Mail, the Denver-based company has decided instead to focus on exploring its Berg property in British Columbia: Chairman and CEO Kevin Loughrey said the property can potentially expand its molybdenum production while also helping the company's diversification efforts.

Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:ABX)(TSX:ABX) ("Barrick" or "the Company") announced today that it has entered into a support agreement with Equinox Minerals Limited (TSX:EQN)(ASX:EQN)("Equinox") for Barrick to acquire, through an all-cash offer, all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Equinox (including the shares represented by Equinox's CHESS Depositary Interests) by way of a friendly take-over offer (the "Offer"). The Offer is for C$8.15 per Equinox share in cash, or a total of approximately C$7.3 billion. The Offer represents a 30% premium based on Equinox's closing share price on the Toronto Stock Exchange on February 25, 2011 (the last trading day before Equinox announced its intention to make a take-over bid for the common shares of Lundin Mining Corporation).

Rescuers and heavy equipment are picking through the debris in hopes of finding more survivors after a landslide thundered down a mountainside in the Philippines on Good Friday. The avalanche of mud hit the mining village of Panganason around 2:30 am Friday morning, according to a story posted on Inquirer.net. Clad in orange suits, the rescuers sifted through the rubble in the hope of adding more survivors—15 so far—plucked from the mud and rocks. But 21 people remained unaccounted for, according to Maj. Jake Obligado, commanding officer of the 71st Infantry Battalion.

Academy-award winning director, actor and environmental activist, Robert Redford, Thursday became the latest face of those opposed to the development of the massive Pebble copper-gold mining project near Bristol Bay in Alaska. In a blog published on the Huffington Post political website, Redford claimed, "I am not against mining. I am against putting mega-mines where they don't belong."