Here is why the mining sector in sub-Saharan Africa is not ready to shine

"What is more disconcerting is that while investors have over the past few weeks appeared cautious of running too short on gold, this fear looks to have evaporated."

Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), the world’s largest platinum producer, launched today the first of five fuel cell-powered locomotive prototypes to be tested at its mining operations in South Africa.

Miningmx.com reports April has seen the lowest number of mining fatalities ever in South Africa, according to figures released by mines minister Susan Shabangu.

Meanwhile, palladium remained in a gross deficit last year, with this being likely to increase in 2012.

There is no such thing as an average miner.  There is no such thing as an average salary.  Yet we can get some idea of how well mining people are paid by looking at the average salaries for 2011 on US metal mines recently published CostMine.

Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives by mining companies operating in emerging markets in South America, Africa and Asia have become a crucial part of doing business as “above-ground risks are quickly gaining equal footing to traditional geological and engineering considerations for mining projects.”

Apart from Russian reserves no longer distorting the market, South Africa's dwindling supply is bound to boost prices further.

Planetary Resources took the wrapper off the new company that plans to mine asteroids, and the company has half a road map on how to get precious metals out of the sky.

Google's billionaire co-founders Larry Page and Eric Schmidt and filmmaker James Cameron will officially announce today plans to mine asteroids. The company's presentation will be broadcast live today at 1:30 p.m. ET.