In an open letter contained in an ad published this week in the New York Times, 50 politicians, actors, scientists and public officials urged the Obama Administration extend a 1-million acre mining ban around the Grand Canyon National Park for 20 years. In 2009 U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar issued a federal order calling for a two-year "time-out" from all new mining claims in the Arizona Strip near the Grand Canyon. The lands blocked from new exploration and mining activity includes acreage managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. Image is from Wikipedia and Chensiyuan

Profit margins for the world’s top 40 mining companies are below the historical peaks of 2006 and 2007 as higher costs outweigh […]

The magic number for real interest rates is 2 percent. That's when you can earn more than 2 percent on a U.S. Treasury bill after discounting for inflation. Our research has shown that commodities tend to perform well when rates fall below 2 percent.

The world’s fifth largest copper mine, Chile’s El Teniente, worked at less than half of capacity on Monday as most workers stayed […]

The rebranding of former fiery leftist Ollanta Humala apparently struck a chord with Peruvian voters as exit polls Sunday showed the former army commander is leading the race to become Peru's next president. The 48-year-old Humala declared victory late Sunday night in an apparently razor-thin win. He would succeed President Alan Garcia on July 28. Image from Agência Brasil under Creative Commons license.

A Russian Finance Ministry official has reportedly said that the State repository has sufficient palladium stocks to continue to export in 2012, while it is also looking to upgrade some of its existing material (Gokhran has sufficient palladium to continue exports in 2012 - report). In their authoritative reviews released last month, both Johnson Matthey and GFMS addressed this issue and the two houses are of similar views with respect to the outlook on this issue.

India, the world's largest diamond processing market, is in a bind. The country that imported close to $7.5 billion in rough diamonds last year has not been able to shake off the embargo on the import of diamonds from Zimbabwe. Traders maintain that this has left the door wide open for more imports into China. In a bid to crackdown on reports that conflict or blood diamonds are being smuggled into India and laundered there, the Indian government had earlier blocked the import of roughs from Zimbabwe.

In the last-minute flurry as the Nevada Legislature rushes toward adjournment Tuesday, state lawmakers backpedalled on a tax deduction deal with the mining industry. Earlier Sunday evening, mining lobbyists had thought they had preserved major net proceeds of minerals deductions for sales tax and employee health care costs.

South Africa’s big three gold miners are upping their global presence as grades at home dwindle and regulatory uncertainty, nationalisation talk and […]

One of 2010’s glamour floats in Australia, Middle Island Resources Ltd (ASX: MDI) has decided to join some global majors, including BHP […]

With sales of no less than 3.65 million ounces of new American Eagle silver coins in May, silver coin sales by the […]

Sandfire Resource’s NL (ASX: SFR) board today approved a definitive feasibility study (DFS) for the DeGrussa VMS copper-gold project in a remote […]