A Canadian company wants to help artisanal miners produce “clean gold”

Gold Fields GFIJ. said on Friday that its attributable group production for the March quarter was expected to decline from the previous quarter to about 830,000 ounces. "As expected production is lower than that achieved in the previous quarter (900,000 ounces), almost entirely due to the customary Christmas break in South Africa, when all mines close for two weeks," it said in a brief guidance for investors.

Newmont Mining Corp , the second-largest gold producer in the world, plans to link its dividend to gold prices, and said it will target to raise production of the precious metal by more than a third by 2017. Denver-based Newmont's shares, which have trailed the Arca Gold Bugs Index since the beginning of the year, rose 4 percent to $58.72 in early trade.

Gunmen killed two workers on Thursday at Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc's giant gold mine in Indonesia's Papua, a province with a simmering separatist movement. A Freeport company spokesman said the shooting by unidentified gunmen, which left the car the two workers were in a blazing wreck, did not affect production at the world's largest gold mine.

Ivernia Inc said it expects to place its flagship lead mine in western Australia under full care and maintenance for an indefinite period and lay off about 83 percent of related workforce amid environmental concerns surrounding the mine, sending its shares down 23 percent to a nine-year low.

Toronto-listed Premier Gold Mines has nearly tripled gold resources at its 70%-owned Hardrock Project in northwestern Ontario, Canada. An updated NI 43-101 report by Micon International Limited shows a 269% increase in measured and indicated resources to 2.5 million ounces, and a 164% increase in inferred resources to 1.1 million ounces.

The mid-tier gold miner Northern Star Resources (ASX: NST) confirmed today that it had achieved A$11 million (US$11.53 million) in revenue in March from the Paulsens gold mine in the Pilbara region while incurring operating costs of about A$5 million (US$5.24 million). The operation produced 8,583 ounces of gold last month and sold 7,897 oz.

Centamin Egypt (CEY.L) (CEE.TO) said it expects full-year production to come in at the lower end of its 250,000-290,000 ounce guidance after output in the first quarter was hit by supply problems. It poured 45,204 ounces in the first quarter and said its Sukari operation remained largely unaffected by Egypt's political unrest.

Mongolia's massive Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project is expected to begin production in August 2012, sooner than forecast, said Temuulen Ganzorig, Deputy Director of Erdenes MGL which partners with Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto in developing the site.

International Minerals Corporation (TSX: IMZ) (SWISS: IMZ) reports updated mineral reserve and resource estimates for the Pallancata silver mine, Peru, jointly owned by IMZ (40% interest) and Hochschild Mining plc ("Hochschild", 60% interest) based on information supplied by Hochschild, the mine operator, as of December 31, 2010.