Mountain Province Diamonds jumps 11.4% on 53- and 84-carat finds

The source of the surge in mining investment has been quite diverse, reflecting the widespread advance in prices. For 2012, gold leads the way with $3.6 billion of capital spending. But not far behind are copper-nickel-zinc mines at $3 billion, potash at $2.9 billion and iron ore at $2.7 billion as the Labrador Trough is developed.

The world's number one diamond miner does not seem to be in need of cash. Too bad, direct exposure to diamonds has always been hard to come by and the diamond business' fundamentals continue to improve.

"Resources groups and the bankers who promote them merit close scrutiny since minerals have been linked in the past with financial scandals and market manipulation, from the nickel bubble that captivated the City in the 1960s and ended in the Poseidon crash, to the Hunt brothers’ cornering of the silver market in 1980."

Diavik is supposed to transform into an underground operation this year and Harry Winston's partner on the project, Rio Tinto, wants to exit diamond mining, but the luxury retailer could not provide any guidance on the way forward. Investors responded by giving Harry Winston a 5% kicking.

ABC News reports that two amateur rockhounds, Libby and Kevin Barrieault, found a 50.5 carat emerald in North Carolina.

Zimbabwe's Black Empowerment Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, announced today it has taken majority ownership of foreign-owned mining firms, which had not already given a controlling stake to black Zimbabweans.

The commodity price cycle peaked in the third quarter of last year.

Could Sierra Leone, the African nation whose decade-long civil war funded by booty from diamond mines bore the term "blood diamonds," be going legit. when it comes to the mining of diamonds?

The relocation of the mining giant's sales and marketing arm's headquarters to the Botswana capital could lead to around $6 billion flowing though the country’s banking system, compared to the $2 billion or so the country earns from rough sales at the moment.