Iron ore price resumes fall

Two of the world's richest women are seeking another $136 million by suing Rio Tinto. According to a story in The Daily Telegraph, Gina Reinhart and Angela Bennett, who are heirs to the Hancock and Wright iron ore fortunes, are suing mining giant Rio Tinto over the rights to iron ore beneath as much as 150 square kilometres of the Pilbara iron ore region of Western Australia: The lawsuit in the NSW Supreme Court is seeking an estimated $136 million in past royalties dating back two decades. If successful, the legal bid could also reap the descendants of Hancock and Wright a further $25 million each year in royalties, even assuming the iron ore price halves by 2016.

allmineral has been awarded three independent contracts to supply its mineral processing products and equipment to the Rio Tinto Low Grade Iron Ore Pilot Plant.  The pilot plant, which will be located at the Brockman 4 mine site in Western Australia, 60km north west of Tom Price, will play a strategic part in the optimisation of beneficiation options for future Pilbara lower grade deposits.

China's top economic planner on Thursday reiterated a ban on favourable power tariffs for power-intensive sectors as the world's second-largest electricity consumer struggles to deal with its worst power crisis in seven years. Last year, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) asked local governments and power suppliers to cancel favourable power prices for aluminium, ferroalloy and calcium carbide makers, and said preferential power rates for direct trade between power generators and power users but without approval must be halted.

Cap-Ex Ventures announced it has received and interpreted the preliminary data from the recently completed Airborne FALCON Gravity Gradiometer and High Sensitivity Magnetometer survey, conducted by Fugro Airborne Surveys Corp. The survey was conducted over the Company's wholly owned Lac Connelly property located in the Labrador Trough.

Iron Road Limited (ASX:IRD) is pleased to announce it has successfully raised A$21.6 million to further advance the Central Eyre Iron Project following the recently completed positive prefeasibility study. "The funds raised today will allow us to continue our aggressive resource drilling campaign and deliver additional large tonnages into the project. We are currently drilling the Murphy South western extension and PIRSA have this week approved drilling over the Murphy South eastern extension. This work will further enhance our position as we continue our partnership discussions.

Brazilian mining giant Vale said on Tuesday it rerouted 391,000 tonnes of iron ore, its first cargo aboard a new class of giant bulk carriers, to Italy from its original destination of China. The cargo is being shipped aboard the Vale Brasil, the world's largest dry-bulk vessel, a ship designed to reduce the cost of shipping the main steel ingredient to China. Despite the rerouting Vale said the so-called Valemax carriers will be able to enter three Chinese ports.

Dow Jones reports a Khazakhstan mining and metals group says it's forging ahead with plans to build a $2 billion iron ore mine in northeast Brazil despite major logistical and environmental obstacles, while speculation about a takeover-bid swirls. The Pedra de Ferro iron ore project is already four years behind schedule, and the company may miss the 2014 start-up date as it is still waiting for environmental licenses to build a port from which to ship the iron ore, and for Brazil's federal government to build a railroad.

Russian mining and metals giant Mechel listed in New York where it has a market capitalization just shy of $11bn, reported on Tuesday winning the auction for the subsoil license for Pionerskoye iron ore deposit, sending its ADRs up 3.5% in midday trade. Pionerskoye's estimated reserves as of January 1, 2010 were 137m tonnes of iron ore with high iron content, which will enable the company to produce iron ore concentrate at the early stages of development without the need to use complex beneficiation technologies.

Power supplies have returned to normal in Chile's northern mining heartland after a power grid failure hit some of the world's biggest copper mines earlier on Sunday, the mining minister said. Chilean Energy and Mining Minister Laurence Golborne told Reuters power supplies were back to "100 percent" and that the impact on production in the top global copper producer was expected to be minimal.