$5.5 billion private capital ready to invest in mining

A new report by Johannesburg-based South Africa Resource Watch (SARW) claims that China is exploiting cheap labor in the sub-Saharan nation and subjecting employees in the mining industry to harsh working conditions.

In what it shouldn’t come as a surprise for anybody who has been following the news in the last three month, South Africa reported Thursday its mining output dropped 8.3% on the year in September.

Members of South African law enforcement are alleged to have planted weapons on the corpses of Marikana miners killed during the deadliest police clashes since the end of Apartheid.

The Russian government is considering allowing foreign investors to develop strategic gold and precious metals minefields, through the adoption of amendments on the currently existing federal law “On Subsoils”, which regulates the development of the minefields in Russia.

Aquarius also appointed a new CEO this week.

China's jewelry stores are expanding into smaller inland cities as demand for gold rises amongst the country's increasingly affluent consumer base.

South African police fired tear gas on Thursday to disperse a group of striking coal miners a day after security guards killed two workers that had tried to break into a locked mine-explosives armoury at Forbes & Manhattan Coal Corp. (TSX:FMC) operations.

Thousands of dismissed workers at Anglo American Platinum Ltd.’s (Amplats) mine in Rustenburg have still not accepted an offer to reinstate them, the world's largest producer of the metal said on Thursday.

Space mining start-up Planetary Resources President, Chris Lewicki, made more than one eyebrow rise Wednesday as he wrote in his blog that there are about $16 trillion worth of platinum waiting to be extracted in our Earth’s oceans.