Antofagasta to stay put on dividend policy but will return cash to shareholders

Reuters writes that Executive Chairman Randall Oliphant said New Gold Inc (NGD.TO) is benefiting from near record high copper and silver prices, which […]

Equinox Minerals would consider selling some of Lundin Mining's assets in order to clear off debt, the company's CEO said in a conference call to analysts on Thursday. Equinox has bid CAD$4.8 billion in a challenge to Inmet Mining's friendly merger with Lundin, but needs a $3.2 billion bridge loan, according to the story by Bloomberg. “We would consider asset sales in the context of non-core, non-copper assets,” Craig Williams, chief executive of the Perth-based company, said today. Equinox may sell Lundin’s Zinkgruvan zinc mine in Sweden, he said.

HudBay Minerals posted some big gains in its fourth-quarter and year-end financials, the Toronto-based miner reported on Wednesday. Net earnings in Q4 2010 more than tripled to $24.5 million, compared to $7.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2009. Year-end numbers were also impressive, with net earnings of $73 million — a 475% increase over 2009 after adjusting for gains on the sale of investments, the company stated.

Franconia shareholders have approved an agreement whereby Duluth will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Franconia, and Franconia will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Duluth. Franconia's assets are expected to be rolled into Twin Metals Minnesota LLC, a Duluth (60%) and Antofagasta plc (40%) joint venture.

Antofagasta will pay a special dividend of 100 cents a share, the Chilean miner said on Tuesday as it posted a jump in full-year earnings on higher copper prices and production. Earnings per share rose to 106.7 cents, from 67.7 cents, as revenue grew 54.5 percent to $4.58 billion.

Copper Canyon Resources is getting more for its Copper Canyon property along with a spin-off company to develop its other exploration assets.

Papuan Precious Metals (TSX VENTURE:PAU)(OTCQX:PAUFF) announced that it has received geochemical results from 25 rock samples collected at its 100% owned Ioleu […]

Shareholders of Lundin Mining Corp. and Inmet Mining Corp. will have two more weeks before they are asked to vote on a friendly merger of the two entities. Canadian Press said the posptponement of the shareholder meetings, from March 14 to March 28, was decided on the weekend after a hostile takeover bid was announced last week by Equinox Minerals: The reason for the postponement is to allow time for shareholders to receive and review the recommendation of the board of directors in relation to the Equinox (TSX:EQN) bid, Lundin said Sunday in a news release.

A landslide Saturday near Freeport McMorran's Grasberg mine left thousands of workers stranded, but was not expected to impact operations at the world's largest copper mine, a company spokesperson told Reuters: A weekend landslide buried a key road access tunnel to Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc's Grasberg mine in Papua, Indonesia, leaving thousands of workers stranded, but a company spokesman said operations were continuing as normal. Freeport is the world's largest publicly traded copper miner, while Grasberg has the world's largest recoverable reserves of copper and the largest gold reserves.