Shares in South African gold miner, Harmony Gold, rose just over 5% on the back of a positive investment rating by RBC Shares in Harmony Gold Mining (HARJ.J: Quote) rose by over 5 percent in early trade on Thursday with dealers attributing the rise to an

South Africa's National Union of Mineworks said on Wednesday that 4,200 workers at DRDGold's(DRDJ.J: Quote) Blyvoor mine would down tools for a day on Thursday to mourn eight miners who died in a bus accident last week.

Goldcorp (G.TO: Quote), Canada's No.2 gold miner, plans to slow down the tempo on deal-making and refocus on developing its large pipeline of projects in the Americas, its CEO said on Wednesday. "M&A is not a high priority for us - focusing on delivering these new projects is our priority now," Goldcorp Chief Executive Chuck Jeannes said at the Reuters Global Mining & Steel Summit in Toronto.

Gold Fields (GFIJ.J), the world's fourth-largest listed gold miner, said on Tuesday rising commodity prices were putting cost pressures on gold miners even as the price of the precious metal itself climbed. "We are concerned about what we've seen on the commodities front," Chief Executive Nick Holland told the Reuters mining summit, citing oil's recent rally but also other rising costs for key things such as timber and steel.

AngloGold Ashanti's (ANGJ.J) top executive said on Tuesday the company hoped to keep its global cost increases to half the industry average but the situation in South Africa was "a lot tougher." Mark Cutifani, the chief executive of Africa's top gold miner, cited increasing depths, reduced grades and input inflation as structural increases putting upward pressure on the costs of gold mining.

Kazakh mining group ENRC (ENRC.L) said underlying profit more than doubled, on record production and demand recovery for its products, and that the global economic outlook is still improving. Underlying EBITDA jumped 118 percent to $3.19 billion, in line with the consensus, as revenue rose 72 percent to $6.60 billion.

Copper and iron ore prices should remain high in the near future because of additional demand for reconstruction in Japan after a devastating earthquake and tsunami, Ivanhoe Mines Ltd Chief Executive Robert Friedland said. The earthquake in northeastern Japan destroyed thousands of homes, levelled buildings and bridges and caused damage estimated at up to $308 billion, according to the Nikkei newspaper.

Canadian base metals miner HudBay Minerals Inc raised its stake in Augusta Resource Corp to 14.3 percent by buying 5.4 million more shares in the company for C$21.3 million. HudBay now holds 20.2 million shares of Augusta Resource, up from about 14.8 million earlier, the company said on Monday.

Moscow - OJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel (the Company) announces today that RUSAL has once again failed gain an injunction through court. The Krasnoyarsk Territory arbitration court has rejected the request for an injunction in a lawsuit brought by RUSAL against OJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel. The suit challenged the divestment of the OGK-3 generating company for a stake in Inter RAO.

Mt. Burgess has identified a large zinc soil geochemical anomaly on its Kihabe-Nzuu base metals prospect in Botswana. Mt Burgess Mining NL (ASX: MTB), which has been actively exploring Botswana and Namibia for more than a decade -- initially for diamonds

Gold Fields (GFIJ.J: Quote), the world's fourth-largest listed gold miner, said on Tuesday it had offered to buy out the remaining shares of its Peruvian unit to boost the group's total production of the precious metal.

Professor Barry Brook, chairman of the Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change at the University of Adelaide, told the final day of the Paydirt 2011 Uranium Conference in Adelaide that change in supply dynamics would require a large-scale but prudent expansion of nuclear energy infrastructure.