Has world top gold miner, Barrick Gold, given up on its principles to remain predominantly a gold producer? While the copper content of Barrick's business has been growing in recent years as the acquisition and development of some of its biggest new gold projects involve the co-mining of copper from big gold/copper porphyry type orebodies, today's announced agreement to acquire copper miner Equinox seems designed to move it even more into the polymetallic production space.

India's Tata Steel , the world's No 7 steelmaker, will hold on to its stake in Africa-focused Riversdale Mining , its vice chairman said on Monday. "We will continue to hold on to our stake," B Muthuraman told reporters.

At US$1,500 an ounce for gold and US$43 for silver, you may be tempted to sell them short, which can leave you painfully squeezed if prices continue to rise, or to take on leveraged risk through futures or geared exchange-traded funds. Instead, apply the Greater Fool Theory and consistently sell off your overpriced shares to greater fools than yourself.

Mid-tier gold miner Iamgold's quarterly gold production rose 41 percent on strong performance at its largest assets, the Rosebel mine in Suriname and Essakane mine in Burkina Faso. Toronto-based Iamgold, which also has mines in Canada, South America and Africa, said gold production came in at 290,000 attributable ounces at a cash cost of $570 to $580 per ounce.

Rare earths project developer, Lynas, reckons independent review of its proposed Malaysian processing facility will not pose a delay for project completion.

Mining giant Rio Tinto (RIO.L) said on Friday it would pay the government of Guinea $700 million after reaching an agreement to resolve all outstanding disputes over blocks 3 and 4 of its Simandou iron ore project. The company said in an emailed statement to Reuters that it had signed a settlement to secure Rio's mining title for the southern Simandou blocks, paving the way for some $10 billion in investment and the first shipment of iron ore by mid-2015.

Academy-award winning director, actor and environmental activist, Robert Redford, Thursday became the latest face of those opposed to the development of the massive Pebble copper-gold mining project near Bristol Bay in Alaska. In a blog published on the Huffington Post political website, Redford claimed, "I am not against mining. I am against putting mega-mines where they don't belong."

The cost of developing the huge Wafi-Golpu gold-copper project in PNG could be as much as $4billion according to Harmony CEO, Graham […]

TNG Ltd (ASX: TNG), which recently released a positive scoping study review of Mt Peake said today it had a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with a major Chinese engineering and development company. It was also now in discussions with other potential funding/development partners.

Miner Anglo American stuck to its production targets on Thursday despite a first quarter that saw floods and heavy rains hampering output, with coal output from its Australian operations down by over a third. Anglo, the world's fifth-biggest diversified miner, is the latest operator to detail the impact of freak weather across its operations. Image by Jam343.

African Barrick Gold (ABGL.L: Quote) said its net profit declined in the first quarter as lower production and higher costs offset rising gold prices. Net profit fell 5 percent to $50.4 million as the miner's production dipped 2 percent to 173,907 ounces. Cash costs jumped 28 percent to $658 an ounce.

Drilling beyond the open-pit shell of an already massive gold deposit, Detour Gold is pushing the limits of gold mineralization with new discoveries. Detour Lake keeps getting bigger for Detour Gold (TSX: DGC). Twelve of 20 drillholes collared outside the western extent of its proposed open-pit project in northeastern Ontario — which so far contains proven and probable reserves of 14.9 million ounces gold @ 1.03 g/t gold — hit long gold-mineralized intercepts.