The Pebble Partnership has approved US$91 million of program expenditures this year with the objective of completing a prefeasibility study next year, which will lead to the beginning of permitting for the massive Alaskan copper, gold and molybdenum project under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Activities to be undertaken this year at the Pebble Project include engineering to complete a pre-feasibility project design in 2011, as well as environmental studies to finalize an Environmental Baseline Document in preparation for project permitting.

Tool and machinery maker Sandvik's (SAND.ST: Quote) first-quarter operating margin was blown south of analysts' forecasts by currency headwinds, sending its shares down more than 3 percent. The maker of metalworking tools, mining equipment and specialty steels was among the hardest hit in Sweden's engineering sector during the financial crisis, but has since been buoyed by a rapid recovery in demand.

After lengthy deliberations involving several software vendors, Fortescue Metals Group, Australia's third largest iron ore producer after BHPBilliton and Rio Tinto, has picked MineSight for its mine planning software needs. "We decided to use MineSight because we found it to have a comprehensive suite of mine planning capabilities most suited to our operations and a demonstrated track record of quality improvements," said Andrew O'Dowd, FMG's Manager of Operations Planning.

Indian state-run National Aluminium Co Ltd (NALCO) has raised the domestic prices of its aluminium products by 4,000 rupees ($90) per tonne, except for rolled products, a senior company official said on Tuesday. The prices have been increased in line with the London Metal Exchange (LME) rates, the official who did not wish to be identified due to company policy, told Reuters.

In an advisory scheduled to be published Thursday, New York-based CPM Group suggest "silver prices have been in a bubble-like spike over the past few weeks and are extremely vulnerable to a sharp decline." "Gold could also fall back sharply," CPM advises.

Canada's Primero Mining Corp said the month-long strike at its San Dimas gold-silver mine in Mexico had ended and it did not expect the strike to hurt its full-year production outlook.

In an updated prefeasibility study of its proposed KSM mega-mine, Seabridge Gold (TSX: SEA) makes major additions to the cost, size, and operating plan of its flagship project in northwestern B.C. Already one of the largest undeveloped copper-gold porphyry projects in the world, perhaps the most significant changes are reserves increasing by 8.5 million ounces gold and 3 billion pounds copper, much of which came from the newly defined Iron Cap zone.

The implications of Osama Bin Laden’s death are filtering through to the markets and, after an initial dive, gold seems to be […]

In India's biggest foreign investment deal since 1991, the Indian government has on Monday finally given South Korea's Posco the green light to build a giant $12 billion steel plant in the country. Posco has said it expects to renew `shortly' its pact with the Orissa government for building the $12 billion steel plant, even as the firm has assured that no exports of iron ore would be conducted from the site.

Lake Shore Gold (TSX: LSG) grew two new resources at its Bell Creek project in Canada near Timmins, Ontario, as it eyes bringing on line a second 100,000-ounce-plus gold mine. "It's fair to say we have found more than we expected at Bell Creek," Mark Utting, Lake Shore vice president of investor relations said. Image by Lakeshore Gold

Arch Coal (ACI.N) will buy smaller peer International Coal Group Inc (ICO.N) for $3.4 billion to create the second-largest U.S. producer of steel-making coal, the companies said on Monday. The deal is the latest in the coal industry, following Alpha Natural Resources' (ANR.N) $6.6 billion plan to buy Massey Energy (MEE.N) and Walter Energy's (WLT.N) $3.3 billion agreement to buy Canada's Western Coal.

Extract Resources said on Monday it was confident that the Namibian government's proposed policy changes on strategic minerals will not affect its Husab uranium project license. The Namibian government is expected to hold a news conference this week to clarify plans to assign almost all mining and exploration rights to a state-owned company.