Did BHP just call the bottom of the mining cycle?

Nautilus Minerals (TSE:NUS), a Toronto-based miner seeking to extract minerals from the ocean floor, uploaded some multimedia showing how it will mine the sea floor. The company is exploring for copper, gold, silver and zinc in seafloor massive sulphide (SMS) deposits, equivalent to land-based volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits such as Kidd Creek in Canada. The company's main focus is Solwara 1 Project, located off Papua New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean. The mineralised zone is about 1.3 km long and up to 200 m wide. It has been drilled up to depths of 19 m below the seafloor. Water depth is approximately 1600m.

Shareholders who held onto their Silvercorp Metals stock during the rollercoaster ride that started on September 2 when the company had to disclose fraud allegations and a massive short position in its stock, had something to show for their loyalty on Friday. Silvercorp, China's biggest silver miner, is now worth more than it was before the scam was exposed. You had to have nerves of steel though – volumes sky-rocketed, intra-day swings reached 22% and at one point shell-shocked owners were down a net 30%. And what is most remarkable: Silvercorp's gains are into the teeth of a silver price that has dropped 27% and a sector slaughtered along with it.

President Ollanta Humala signed Peru's new mining law on Wednesday, which will raise about $1 billion a year. The money is to be directed to the poorest parts of the country and help build schools and infrastructure. Mining companies will now pay taxes based on their operating profits, ranging from 1% to 12%, rather than old regime where they paid 1% to 3% based on sales. There will also be a windfall profits tax ranging from 2% to 8.4% of a company's net profits.

Orvana Minerals Corp. TSX:ORV has applied for a permit to begin mining its Copperwood project in Michigan. The environmental permit is one of 13 permits needed to mine in Michigan.

Researchers have discovered a new way to separate gold, silver, copper and other valuable metals from ore using the flotation processing method, reports MEI Online.

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO--(Marketwire - Sep 27, 2011) - Gold Resource Corporation (NYSE Amex: GORO) today announced that its Board of Directors has approved a $20 million stock repurchase program. Gold Resource Corporation is a low-cost gold producer with operations in the southern state of Oaxaca, Mexico. The Company has returned over $25 million to shareholders in monthly dividends since declaring commercial production July 1, 2010.

WINNEMUCCA, NEVADA--(Marketwire - Sept. 27, 2011) - Paramount Gold and Silver Corp. (NYSE Amex:PZG)(TSX:PZG)(FRANKFURT:P6G)(WKN:A0HGKQ)("Paramount Gold") announced today new high grade assay results from 10 core holes drilled on its 100% owned San Miguel Project in northwestern Mexico. Four holes drilled on the San Miguel Vein returned multiple high-grade gold and silver intercepts including 9.2 meters grading 5.56 g/T of gold and 120.14 g/T of silver and 21.95 meters grading 2.79 g/T of gold and 325.07 g/T of silver. These results are expected to upgrade inferred resources to higher categories and improve the average grade of the resource in this area.

The Scotsman reports a British cargo ship carrying silver worth £135 million has been located deep in the North Atlantic 70 years after it was sunk by a Nazi torpedo, paving the way for the largest ever haul of precious metal from the sea bed. Marine archaeologists from Odyssey Marine Exploration, a shipwreck salvage company based in Florida, found the SS Gairsoppa resting almost three miles beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean and in international waters about 300 miles off the coast of Ireland. 200 tonnes of silver stashed in its hold. Under a salvage agreement with the British government, Odyssey will be able to keep 80% of the cargo.

A statement put out by Ivanhoe Mines on Monday telling investors that its Oyu Tolgoi project remains on track and pooh-poohing rumours about the Mongolian government reneging on the deal that Ivanhoe and partner Rio Tinto spent five years negotiating did little to ease the fears of investors. By lunchtime Ivanhoe had plummeted more than 21.3%, crashing through the $10 billion market valuation level and taking the week's losses to 33%, with the number of shares changing hands already exceeding the daily average. Ivanhoe also appeared to have patched things up with Rio Tinto on Monday after it said last week it's unhappy that the world's number two miner told investors about possible delays to the mega-project.