Newcrest starts drilling at Greatland Gold’s project in Western Australia

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Aug. 30, 2011) - Further to the press release dated July 27, 2011, Nortec Minerals Corp. (TSX VENTURE:NVT)(PINK SHEETS:NMNZF)(FRANKFURT:WMQ) ("Nortec" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that it has signed an Option and Joint Venture Agreement ("OA") with Otterburn Ventures Inc. (CSNX:OTB) ("Otterburn"). The OA gives Otterburn the option to earn up to an 80% interest in Nortec's Läntinen Koillismaa project, a 100 % owned palladium-platinum–gold–copper-nickel property ("LK Project"), located in north central Finland.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Aug. 30, 2011) - Empire Mining Corporation (TSX VENTURE:EPC) ("Empire") is pleased to provide an update on the Demirtepe Project in western Turkey where drilling by Empire has consistently encountered significant grades and intervals of copper-gold-silver and molybdenum skarn mineralization in the Main Zone, including Discovery Hole DTH-001 which intersected2.02% copper, 0.96 g/t gold and 21.64 g/t silver over 47.35 m from 112.2 m to 159.55 m, including 8.0 m of 9.1% copper, 4.68 g/t gold and 95.3 g/t silver.

MOUNT PEARL, NEWFOUNDLAND--(Marketwire - Aug. 30, 2011) - Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. ("Cornerstone") (TSX VENTURE:CGP) (FRANKFURT:GWN) (BERLIN:GWN) (PINK SHEETS:CTNXF) announced today preliminary results for the ongoing exploration program at the La Fortuna copper-silver project located in the Valparaíso Region of central Chile, approximately 100 km north of Santiago.

Peru's government and miners are discussing the implementation of at least two different rate scales for a new royalty payment system

Shares in Ivanhoe mines closed up just over 5% in Toronto on Monday outperforming the broader market and bringing the counter's gains to 23.2% over the last week. At a time when many miners across the developing world struggle to preserve their social licence, the impact of Ivanhoe's Oyu Tolgoi on the people of Mongolia stands in stark contrast: the mine will contribute a third of the country's GDP when it goes into full operation, will be mined until at least 2060 and increase the average earnings of Mongolians by 60% according to a new CNN report.

Copper futures declined in New York on concern that moves to curb credit growth and tame inflation by China, the world’s biggest consumer of the metal, may reduce demand for raw materials.

Workers at Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold's (FCX.N: Quote) Grasberg mine in Indonesia plan to stage a strike in coming days after talks with the company failed to resolve a pay dispute, a move that could tighten global copper supplies and lift prices. A strike would be the second in two months at Grasberg, the world's third biggest copper mine that also has the biggest gold reserves, after an eight-day stoppage in July caused production losses and helped push copper prices to three-month highs

Ollanta Humala, President-elect of Peru, fulfilled a campaign promise Thursday in announcing his government's intention to hit mining companies with higher royalty taxes. Humala, who was elected in July, campaigned on a promise to tax mining company profits and distribute them to the poor — a development that had investors and mining company CEOs running for cover in a country that is the world's second largest producer of copper and the sixth biggest gold miner. Companies now pay between 1% and 3% in royalties.

Reuters reports 50,000 protesters battled police in Chile's capital on Thursday, the second day of a two-day strike against unpopular President Sebastian Pinera. A recent poll put the right-wing leader's approval rating at only 26%, below even that of dictator General Pinochet, who ruled the country for 17 years from 1973. The protests follows recent strikes in the copper sector over pay and a campaign against a massive coal mine on an island in Patagonia amid accusations that billionaire Pinera’s shareholding in the developer, Copec, constitutes a serious conflict of interest.