The Tchegi alluvial site will, together with Escom’s existing Luo kimberlite mine, produce a total of about 35,000 carats a month by the end of the year.

A person familiar with the matter says Rio Tinto is considering a sale of all or part of its Riversdale unit after last week flagging a $3 billion writedown for the assets.

The diamond producer is confident of finding a gem deposit in Angola that will allow it to more than recoup the $250 million it has spent on exploration.

The country raised the import tax on gold to from 4% to 6% on Monday, with the aim to curb purchases and rein in its ballooning current account deficit.

The hike in gold import duty in India is set to help smugglers push the precious metal and increase the price of gold by $13 per ten gram in the domestic market.

Brent Cook, co-editor of the Exploration Insights newsletter believes much of the froth has now been washed out of the junior market.

Turkish gold exports rose to $12.7bn in the first eleven months of 2012 compared to the $1.47bn exported in the whole of the previous year.

ArcelorMittal has resolved its bitter dispute at the French Florange plant, though the company has decided to write down the value of its European business by $4.3 billion

A South African lawyer has moved to file a Silicosis class action motion against over 30 gold firms on behalf of 17,000 former miners

A look at the list of the ten best read mining stories on Mineweb throughout 2012.

Russia's central bank has no immediate plans to diversify its foreign exchange holdings, Chairman Sergei Ignatyev said on last week