Australia moved closer to introducing a contentious 30 percent mining tax being eyed by other countries, releasing draft laws and seeking reaction from resource companies to legislation expected to be passed later this year. The government unveiled the mining tax over a year ago but modified its plan before last August' s elections after global miners including BHP Billiton , Rio Tinto , and Xstrata launched a public campaign against it. Big miners and minority lawmakers are now broadly supportive and the legislation is expected to pass parliament and take effect on July 1, 2012.

South Africa's gold output rose 1.5 percent in volume terms in April while total mineral production rose 12.4 percent compared with the same month a year earlier, data showed on Thursday. Production of non-gold minerals was up 13.9 percent in the same period, Statistics South Africa said.

Ethiopia is set to hit its target of more than doubling mining exports to an annual $1 billion ahead of time, the country's mining minister told Reuters, as it promotes gold extraction, but also fertilizer ingredient potash. Ethiopia, though still reliant on commodities like coffee for revenue, is expected to earn around $500 million from mining exports in the financial year to next July, the minister said. It had targeted doubling that over five years from 2010/11.

Standard & Poor’s has raised its metals price assumptions for 2011 and beyond, citing the increased volatility of the markets but worries […]

Ron Leven of Morgan Stanley has recently delivered a presentation under the auspice of ETF Securities Ltd. in which he outlined his […]

China showed robust demand for crude oil and coal in May, shrugging off higher prices to boost imports by more than 20 percent, but its appetite for overseas copper supplies remained sickly and iron ore buying showed signs of ending a strong run.

De Beers chairman Nicky Oppenheimer told a Washington audience Thursday that Africa has a bright future if its leaders embrace globalization and allow the private sector to flourish.

Shear Diamonds has engaged the services of DRA Americas to evaluate the existing diamond recovery plant at the Jericho diamond project, Nunavut. DRA is a world leader in the design and engineering of mineral process solutions with experience specific to Canada’s Northern diamond industry.

Silver is searing hot in China as imports are set to hit a new high. The white metal's widespread use in industry and jewellery has ensured that though commodities may drift lower in the near term on worries about the global economy, the silver market is likely to remain bullish, maintain analysts.

Scandinavian Resources Ltd. (ASX:SCR) has now acquired the Ekstromsberg and Tjarrojakka iron ore projects, about 45 kilometres from Kiruna inside the Arctic […]

Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco) has taken a 45 percent majority stake in a rare earth joint venture in Jiangsu province, boosting such assets, which is part the firm's strategic development plan, a company spokesman said on Friday.

Two workers died after they were hit by waste debris being removed from Brazilian miner Vale's (VALE5.SA) Stobie underground copper-nickel mine in Sudbury, Ontario, officials said on Thursday. The employees were working in a shaft about 1,000 metres below the surface on Wednesday evening when the accident occurred, and were dead when rescuers reached the scene, the company said.