The West Virginia Governor's Independent Investigation Panel announced Thursday its findings that the explosion that killed 29 miners at the Upper Big Branch coal mine on April 5, 2010, was preventable. J. Davitt McAteer, the former head of MSHA, who headed the state investigation, told the news media "a great deal went wrong. A great many problems occurred that led to this disaster."

Pure gold deposits are increasingly difficult to find. "What really bothers me is that in the 1980s or 1990s, we saw three to five discoveries of 5 to 20 million ounces each, and upwards of 30 to 50 million ounces a year. That is what makes or breaks the industry. There are no discoveries of that magnitude now." Pierre Lassonde, veteran gold analyst, co-founder/chairman of Franco Nevada Mining Corp., former president of Newmont Mining Corp.

Miner Lonmin LMIJ.J (LMI.L: Quote) said on Friday that there was unspecified industrial action taking place at its Marikana operations in South Africa by members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). "Lonmin announced today that it is currently experiencing unprotected industrial action by NUM members at the Karee operations of its Marikana operations. As a result, production at Karee has been disrupted since the night shift of Tuesday 17th May," it said in a statement.

China's gold output in the first three months of 2011 totalled 73.412 tonnes, up 4.63 pct from the same months of 2010, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Friday. It said gold mining output was 60.262 tonnes, up 5.18 percent, while another 13.15 tonnes was obtained from smelting base metals, up 2.21 percent from a year earlier.

Reforms by Guinea's first freely elected government are needed to clean up a mining sector in disarray after decades of political turmoil, but they risk scaring off investors if they go too far too fast. The world's top bauxite supplier and a new frontier for iron ore, Guinea is rewriting its mining code, probing joint venture deals, and has dealt tough blows to major firms since the election of President Alpha Conde last November.

During 2010, London- and Johannesburg-listed Central Rand Gold (CRG) produced 9,321 ounces of gold. This is the company that categorically stated in its 2007 annual report that it is "intended that CRG will begin gold production in early 2009 at an annualized rate of 100,000 ounces. This production rate is forecast to increase to around one million ounces a year by 2012."

In spite of declines in silver, gold and zinc production during the first quarter of the year, Pan American Silver said Wednesday management "continues to believe in the accuracy of its forecast 2011 production." Silver production for the first quarter was 5.3 million ounces, a 6% decrease below management's forecast "due primarily to throughput and grade challenges at Huaron, Morocochoa, San Vincente and Manantial Espejo during the quarter," PanAm said.

The gold bears and doubters - and the silver bears in particular - have had great success in driving the prices of these two precious metals downwards but are we looking at more of the same to come, or perhaps consolidation and another take-off? The pattern of price movements we are seeing currently, with strong upwards and downwards fluctuations for both metals.

Commodities trader Glencore's bumper public offering has increased interest in Hong Kong listings from across the mining sector and will prove a welcome boost to the bourse, a senior executive at the exchange said. The world's largest diversified commodities trader is set to make its market debut in London and Hong Kong next week, in what could be a record listing, with Glencore [GLEN.UL] hoping to raise $11 billion.

Northland Resources (TSX: NAU) sees about twice as much cash flowing into its coffers once Kaunisvaara, its flagship iron-ore project in Sweden, reaches production in 2013. The projected boost in part stems from reconsideration of the price Northland's iron-ore pellets might command. "Northland has long been convinced that the market will highly value the high Fe-content (69%) and low levels of impurities (e.g. 1.1% SiO2 and 0.2% Al2O3) in its concentrate," the iron-ore junior noted in a press release.

On record cash flow La Mancha (TSX: LMA) doubled net earnings in its first quarter to C$7.5 million. La Mancha credited strong gold prices and production for the performance. In the first quarter last year La Mancha produced 21,654 ounces gold, but increased production at La Mancha's Hassai mine in Sudan and Frog's Leg mine in Australia pushed that number up by 50 percent to 32,426 ounces gold.

Billionaire investor George Soros sold most of his holdings in the bullion-backed SPDR Gold Trust and iShares Gold Trust (IAU) funds in the first quarter and bought shares of mining companies Goldcorp Inc. and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX), a government filing shows. Soros Fund Management LLC held 49,400 shares of SPDR Gold Trust as of March 31, compared with 4.721 million at the end of the fourth quarter, the filing today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed.  Flickr image is from the World Economic Forum.