Silver Wheaton to get $550 million in shares sale

News that the Mongolian government is rethinking a 2009 deal that gave Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto a 66% stake in the massive Oyu Tolgoi gold and copper project has sent the shares of Ivanhoe down more than 9.5% in Toronto on Wednesday afternoon, while Rio's ADRs gave up over 6% in New York trade. The bad news appears to have led to a bust-up between the two companies, with Ivanhoe founder and CEO Robert Friedland saying on Wednesday Rio's senior management has been making "unauthorized and incomplete" statements about Oyu Tolgoi and that he will take the matter up with the world's number three miner. Ivanhoe is closely tied to Mongolia where it also controls SouthGobi, a producing coal mine. SouthGobi plummeted 10% on Wednesday.

After declaring a 730,000 tonne increase of contained copper in mineral resources at Kennecott Utah Copper, Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) expects to head underground. Rio Tinto says that the mineral resource, known as the North Rim Skarn, is a high-grade copper-gold skarn deposit located approximately 300 metres below the current Bingham Canyon pit, the world's deepest open pit mine. The company has committed US$165 million to complete the next stage of exploration and development studies by 2014.

Avanti Mining Inc. CA:AVT -2.86% (pinksheets:AVNMF) ("Avanti" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has received assays from the next 14 holes of its 2011 drill program at the Kitsault Mine molybdenum project located in northwest British Colombia.

FLSmidth has today signed an agreement to acquire the assets of the privately owned company Knelson, a Canada based corporate partnership which is active within the minerals industries. Knelson develops, manufactures, and installs equipment for the recovery of precious metals such as gold, platinum and silver, as well as the enhanced gravity separation of base metals and industrial minerals with over 3000 installations in over 70 countries worldwide. The customer base comprises all the major gold, platinum and silver mining companies.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Sept. 20, 2011) - Empire Mining Corporation (TSX VENTURE:EPC) ("Empire") is pleased to report the final assay results for the remaining drill holes from Phase I drilling at the Demirtepe copper-gold-silver-molybdenum project located in western Turkey, where drilling in the Main Zone has consistently intercepted significant shallow mineralization in every hole completed. The most recent assays include the following significant copper-gold-silver and molybdenum intersections

With the price of silver near 30-year highs, analysts and investors are beginning to question the underperformance of silver mining and streaming stocks.

Agnico Eagle Mines (TSE:AEM) announced on Monday that it had acquired Grayd Resources (CVE:GYD) for $275 million. Grayd is a junior exploration and development company with gold and silver projects in Mexico. Agnico said the offer price of $2.80 per Grayd share represents a premium of 65.7% to the volume weighted average price of Grayd shares on the TSX Venture Exchange for the 20-day period ended September 16, 2011.

Adelaide Now reports BHP Billiton wants to "future-proof" its massive Olympic Dam project, including using driverless haulage trucks and this week put out a recruitment ad for an executive to oversee the high-tech initiative. The system would mean operators can be in a control room on the site or even in the comfort of a city office hundreds of kilometres away. BHP Billiton is in the final stages of the approval process for the $30 billion expansion of its existing underground operation at Olympic Dam to create a new open pit mine that would be the worlds biggest – trucks will haul overburden 24/7 for five to six years just to reach the ore body. The combined operations would mine 72 Mt ore per year and would produce 750,000 tonnes refined copper, 19,000 tonnes uranium oxide, 800,000 gold ounces and 2.9 Moz of silver per year.

Research firm Metals Economics Group reports gold continues to be top exploration target accounting for more than 50% of global exploration of non-ferrous metals for the second consecutive year in 2011. Latin America is set continue to be the industry's favorite regional exploration destination in 2011, while Canada will remain the top overall country. Copper will account for roughly a fifth of 2011 nonferrous exploration budgets that is expected to exceed US$17 billion for expenditures related to precious and base metals, diamonds, uranium, and some industrial minerals. It represents an increase of about 50% from the 2010 total and a new all time high.