Visit to vast Nunavut exploration camp highlights possibilities

Pimps man the park across from the historic Ulan Bator Hotel, popular with foreigners. They are keeping an eye on their employees -- about 20 women working in Mongolia's quickly expanding sex trade. Image by Tomascastelazo

China's gold output in the first five months of 2011 totalled 132.02 tonnes, up 3.67 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on its website on Tuesday.

Workers at US company Freeport McMoRan's giant gold and copper mine in Indonesia's Papua region agreed on Monday to end a strike that has lasted more than a week. Workers at US company Freeport McMoRan's giant gold and copper mine in Indonesia's Papua

Stillwater Mining, the only platinum and palladium producer in the U.S., announced on Monday that it will acquire Peregrine Metals for US$487.1 million. Peregrine Metals is a publicly-traded exploration and development company with gold and copper projects in Argentina and Peru. The company is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures gained Monday on continuing concerns about Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis and as investors eschewed investments considered riskier, such as U.S. stocks. Gold for August delivery added $13.20, or 0.9%, to

A strike paralyzing production at Freeport Indonesia's Grasberg mine, one of the world's largest sources of copper and gold, will extend into a second week after talks broke down between the company and workers, a union official said on Friday. The union, which represents 8,000 workers who have been on strike since Monday, asked U.S.-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX.N) to send Chairman James Moffett to the remote Indonesian mine to negotiate.

Plans for a huge gold mine near Kershaw have been delayed for at least a year because of the mine's potential effect on creeks and wetlands that run through the site in Lancaster County. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will conduct an environmental impact statement before it decides on a wetlands permit for Romarco Minerals Inc., which wants to create the largest gold mine east of the Mississippi River. Image of the Haile gold mine site, by Romarco Minerals.

Debt-saddled Greece has a new revenue source in the form of two gold mines that have been approved by the country's environment minister, George Papaconstantinou, FT reported on Friday. The newspaper said that European Goldfields has received final approval to build two large gold mines in northern Greece, named Olympias and Skouries, near Thessaloniki. The AIM-listed miner plans to spend $500 million to build the mines and a total of 1.3 billion euros throughout the life of the mines.

South Africa’s Pilanesberg Platinum announced on Friday a labour dispute has been settled and mining operations will resume next week after a two-week shutdown after employees of a contractor disrupted operations through intimidation of supervisors and damage to property and equipment. The share traded up almost 2% in afternoon trade but the company worth some $510m has lost more than a tenth of its value on the Toronto bourse since halting operations and is down close to 50% over the last twelve months.