South African miner Metorex said on Monday that it had still received no firm offer from any party other than Brazil's Vale, which has made a $1.1 billion offer for it.

The Aluminium Corp of China said the Queensland government had terminated the discussions over possible development of bauxite resources in Australia.

Diamond prices continue to soar, with rough prices up 27pc in 2010 to levels higher than before the crisis. Prices have continued to rise this year, but high prices may now be putting buyers off. Anecdotal evidence of this "demand destruction" has started to emerge. On Thursday, sector observer Rapaport noted that, although demand is still strong, caution had entered some markets.

Russia and the Yakutia region plan to reduce their combined holding in the Alrosa diamond miner to 50 percent plus one share during the next three years, deputy finance minister Alexei Savatyugin said on Friday.

The U.S. Mint has now released one of its most sought-after coins, the 2011 American Eagle Silver proof coin but, has limited sales to 100 coins per customer.

The Chinese consortium buying a 17.64% stake in Gold One has completed the transaction, the South African gold miner reported on Friday. China’s Baiyin Nonferrous Group bought Navada Trading subsidiary African Global Capital’s (AGC’s) shareholding in Gold One for A$75.6-million at A$0.53 a share.

Century Mining's (TSX-V: CMM) defined gold ounces at its Lamaque mine in Quebec dropped precipitously following a Micon International reserve and resource update. Measured and indicated resources fell 75 percent from 2.4 million ounces to 587,000 ounces gold; proven and probably reserves, which were included in measured and indicated resources, were cut by more than half from 1.1 million ounces to 451,000 ounces gold; and inferred resources, meanwhile, dropped over 40 percent to 1.9 million ounces gold.

Japan's Showa Denko KK will transfer some production of high-performance magnetic alloys used in hybrid vehicle motors to China this month, the Nikkei business daily said.

CiDRA Minerals Processing has announced that Rio Tinto has chosen CiDRA's SONARtrac® flow monitoring systems as its preferred technology for use on slurry lines at Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia. CiDRA will instrument 30 lines at the new concentrator, where the SONARtrac systems should lead to increased accuracy and reduced maintenance costs.

FL Smidth has received a major order from an as yet unnamed Latin American copper miner for milling equipment including world's largest SAG mill

Outotec has agreed with Samarco Mineração S.A. on a turnkey delivery of the world's largest iron ore pelletizing plant in Brazil. The contract value is approximately EUR 200 million, which will be booked in Outotec's second quarter order intake.

An announced order for milling equipment for First Quantum's big Sentinel copper project in Zambia suggests a decision to go ahead with the project has already been taken. FLSmidth has received a contract worth approximately USD 50m from Kalumbila