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2011 will go down as the year when the wind fell out of the sails of economic recovery and serious storm clouds gathered on the horizon.

Canadian Silvercorp Metals (TSX: SVM-News)(NYSE: SVM-News), China’s biggest silver miner that was accused this year of accounting and production fraud in anonymous letters to authorities, has retained independent consultants to confirm resource estimates at four of its properties.

Most commodities, except for the heavyweights gold and oil, are poised for a down year in 2011, the first fall for this sector since the financial crisis hit in 2008.

Australian Laguna Resources (ASX: LRC) has submitted an environmental impact study (EIS) to Chile’s Environment Ministry's evaluation service for its US$300 million Arqueros gold-silver project in the north of the country.

(Temecula, California) -- How will gold, silver and other precious metals perform in 2012?

Gold is ringing out the year on a sour note, dropping below $1,550/oz and losing nearly 10% of its value in the last month.

Located at over 4,000 meters above sea level in the Altiplano of the Andes Mountains, the San Cristobal Mine is the largest mine in Bolivia. The open-pit silver, lead and zinc mine’s production process requires the transportation of 150,000 tons of rock, and the processing of 40,000 tons of mineral daily.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Dec. 27, 2011) - Columbus Silver Corporation (TSX VENTURE:CSC) ("Columbus Silver") is pleased to announce that Santa Fe Gold Corporation (OTCBB:SFEG) ("Santa Fe") has announced it has obtained conditional debt financing to complete its acquisition of Columbus Silver.

Crystallex International received protection today under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act of Canada, and the company will also be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange next month.