Western Australia’s gold royalty hike blocked again

Australia, Canada, South Africa and many more countries are courting a small, transient, global workforce of engineers, geologists and metallurgists to keep their mining, oil and gas, and energy operations running. What can these major corporations do to secure the right talent? If you’re Rio Tinto, you turn to content marketing.

It is now possible for individuals to establish a personal gold standard using the world's first Gold Debit Card. The service allows users to save in gold but spend in local currency.

The Business Standard reports now that platinum trades more in line with the gold price, Indian jewellery buyers are moving back into gold.

A new survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit finds when institutional investors interested in frontier markets were asked to choose two regions out of five, two-thirds see Africa – projected to be the fastest growing region on the planet this year – as holding the greatest opportunity.

Chinese-owned mining company Ecuacorriente will sign a contract to invest $1.4 billion over five years for extracting copper in Ecuador's southern Amazon, reports local newspaper La Republica.

A record of 212% increase in net earnings in 2011, as well as record annual gold production of 387,155 ounces, reported gold miner New Gold (TSX and NYSE AMEX:NGD).

After steady gains throughout the day Ivanhoe Mines – building one of the richest copper and gold mines in the world – ended Thursday up 5.47% after CEO and founder Robert Friedland said he's found buyers for the company's other assets.

Canadian Shore Gold (TSX:SGF) shares fell dramatically Thursday after the Saskatoon-based company announced it had failed to secure a deal to fund their Star-Orion South diamond project near Prince Albert.

CEO Vitaly Nesis said Thursday the company is eyeing acquisitions in Kazakhstan, Armenia, Ukraine, the Russian Far East and Urals, adding that activities in Finland were also of interest.