Silver Wheaton to get $550 million in shares sale

South American Silver (TSE:SAC) stock shot up 17% in morning trading today on the Toronto Stock Exchange to $1.62 a share after the company announced the findings from its NI 43-101-qualified resource estimate of the company's Escalones copper-gold-silver project in central Chile.

Seven miners have been pulled from Hecla Mining's Lucky Friday mine after a collapse Wednesday evening. Media reports say that six of the workers were treated at the scene while a seventh was treated at hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) has acquired the remaining 30% interest in the San Juan Silver project in Colorado's Creede silver-producing district, for $33.8 million in stock.

Vancouver-based miner Endeavour Silver has discovered two high-grade silver/gold zones at its Guanajuato mine in Mexico and anticipates a significant increase in reserves and resources at the mine at the year-end.

Precious metals took a beating in the markets on Monday, with gold and silver falling in inverse relation to a 1% rise in the US dollar. Gold for February delivery crashed $52.60 to $1664.20 an ounce at Comex in New York. Silver sunk $1.20 to $31.05/oz.

A new zinc mine in Canada's Northwest Territories has received environmental approval. Canadian Zinc Corporation (TSE:CZN) said Friday that its Prairie Creek Mine has cleared an environmental review by the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board, meaning the mine can proceed to the next stage of regulatory approvals.

A new open-pit copper-gold mine in Canada's Yukon Territory would be powered with natural gas. Releasing an update today on its Casino project, Western Copper and Gold Corp. (TSE:WRN) says the company has partnered with Yukon Energy Corp., the territory's energy utility, to evaluate strategies for supplying liquified natural gas (LNG) to the mine and the Yukon.

Ecuador is not a top-of-mind country when it comes to mining, but that could change as the government signals a shift in direction towards the minerals sector, the Globe and Mail is reporting. The Globe reports that the leftist government of Rafael Correa plans to invest $3 billion in the next two and a half years in order to reduce the country's dependence on oil exports.

Coin Update reports for November 2011, sales of the United States Mint’s most popular gold and silver bullion coins fell to their lowest monthly levels in years after first slowing down in October. Sales of the one ounce American Silver Eagle coins were 1,384,000 for November, down by more than 50% from the previous month and down by nearly two-thirds from a year ago while the American Gold Eagle coin sales totaled 41,000 ounces for November 2011, down from 50,000 ounces in the previous month, and down more than half last year's monthly sales.