Without US-China trade war, copper price would be higher – Antofagasta chairman

Two workers died after they were hit by waste debris being removed from Brazilian miner Vale's (VALE5.SA) Stobie underground copper-nickel mine in Sudbury, Ontario, officials said on Thursday. The employees were working in a shaft about 1,000 metres below the surface on Wednesday evening when the accident occurred, and were dead when rescuers reached the scene, the company said.

Bloomberg reports that copper fell to a one-week low. The market news is quoted as saying: Copper futures for July delivery declined 2.4 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $4.0845 a pound at 9:58 a.m. on the Comex in New York.

Reuters reports that half of contractors in a strike at Chile's El Teniente mine have ended their strike. The market news is quoted as saying: Mine owner Codelco [CODEL.UL] expects to lift output to 51 percent capacity on Thursday after the world's top underground operation slowed production to 40 percent capacity over the weekend to protect staff workers amid escalating violence by protesters.

Capella Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:KPS)(PINK SHEETS:CPSJF) is pleased to announce that it has discovered two new mineralization zones at its Lajitas gold-copper project in northern Chile as a result of the recently completed airborne hyperspectral imaging survey by SpecTIR LLC of Reno, Nevada.

On Wednesday the Vancouver Sun released its list of the highest paid executives in B.C. with several miners making it to the […]

Taseko Mines is inviting public discussion on its revised plan for developing a controversial gold-copper mine in British Columbia. Information on the project and a commentary section are found at http://www.newprosperityproject.ca. Taseko announced in February it is taking another run at Prosperity after the federal government rejected it last fall. Under the revisions, the company plans to spend another $300 million, pushing the project's capex to $1.1 billion. Image by Taseko Mines Ltd.

The top 40 global mining companies are poised to break through the US$1 trillion asset mark this year, due to record levels of cash, property and equipment on balance sheets, says a new PwC report. In their report Mine 2011: The game has changed, PwC called the financial results of the top 40 "spectacular" as total revenues increased 32% to US$435 billion, breaking the $400 billion mark for the first time.

Chieftain Metals has initiated an important step in its 2011 operations plan by transporting heavy machinery and equipment via barge to the Tulsequah Chief mine site in north-western British Columbia.

Barrick Gold is suing Goldcorp over the El Morro copper mine in Chile, the Globe and Mail reported yesterday. According to the newspaper: Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp., (ABX-T44.24-0.39-0.87%) the world’s largest gold producer, is fighting Goldcorp Inc. (G-T46.82-0.59-1.24%)after the Vancouver company scooped up a majority stake in the El Morro development, one of the largest known copper and gold deposits in South America. Barrick alleges Goldcorp’s deal to buy Swiss miner Xstrata PLC’s 70-per-cent stake in El Morro was done illegally and is suing both parties, along with New Gold Inc., (NGD-T9.09-0.06-0.66%) which has a 30-per-cent stake in the project.