Russia’s VTB Capital aims to double gold sales to China in 2018

Uncertainties with regard to global growth are pressuring the base metal prices. However Nickel especially faces huge downside pressure due to a weakening Steel demand and prospects of new mine operations that will Lead to a supply surplus.

Kazakhstan, strategically placed between China and Russia, has a wealth of mineral riches which it is eager to profit from. While Kazakhstan is probably best known for its oil, changes are on the horizon as mining companies flow in searching for copper, gold, zinc and other natural resources.

Global miner BHP Billiton is looking to build a new rail line between some of its inland Australian coal mines and the coast in a move that could threaten dominant coal haulage firm QR National, a newspaper said on Thursday.

Kazakh miner ENRC said a keenly awaited governance review was on track to deliver a fully independent board that would take all stakeholder interests into account, when posting first-half profit at the top end of expectations. Kazakh miner ENRC, whose image has been tarnished by the purchase of an asset the Congolese government expropriated from Canadian miner First Quantum last year and a very public boardroom spat, announced a three-month corporate governance review in June.

World no. two iron ore producer Rio Tinto announced on Wednesday it is suspending operations at two mines in Pilbara, Western Australia following the fatality of a worker. "Operations at Brockman 2 and the adjacent Nammuldi mine site will remain suspended until further notice," the company said in a statement. The 27-year old man was fatally injured shortly after 8:00pm while changing out a hydraulic cylinder on a front-end loader. One other work-mate was with him at the time.

The world's number two miner provided funding and logistical support as far back as March 2010 for Red Dog, a movie about a kelpie roaming the mining towns of the Pilbara region and now finds itself one of the principal investors in Australia's number one hit movie of the year. There is a statue in the cattle dog's memory in Dampier, which is one of the towns in the 1970s to which he often returned in the region where most of Australia's iron ore is mined today. Iron ore exports alone contribute some 3.6% or $50 billion to Australia's economy.

The market is expecting BHP Billiton to post record-setting annual profits of $US22.1 billion next week on revenues forecast to be a staggering $71.9 billion. BHP investors, whose stock has hardly moved in a year despite stellar growth rates at the Melbourne-based company, would want to hear if another share buyback will follow the $10 billion round completed in June and any update on its purchase of Petrohawk. The world's biggest miner has a history dating back 150 years and its operations span the globe from potash in Canada (pictured) and coal in South Africa to nickel in Australia and copper in Chile.

Contract mining and construction firm Macmahon Holdings has secured various Australian mining contracts worth $90m. The first contract involves predevelopment work adjacent to current operations at BHP Billiton Iron Ore's Wheelarra mine and mining

India’s iron ore exports could halve over the next five years as the country feeds the expansion of its steel industry and resource nationalism becomes a big driver of policy in Delhi. Lower shipments from India, which exports almost half the 200 million tonnes it produces, should help bolster prices that have more than tripled in three years before massive Australian projects come on stream around 2014. The global trade in iron ore which not long ago featured antiquated annual contracts and secretive pricing has been transformed and Singapore will this week launch the first global iron ore futures contract.