The destruction of Mongolia's grasslands to access a wealth of mineral riches has sparked an anti-mining movement led by a nomadic herder who says force can be used to bring polluting firms to heel. Tsetsegee Munkhbayar is the head of Fire Nation, a small group on a crusade to put an end to what they say are irresponsible mining operations in the resource-rich landlocked country that are threatening their livelihoods.

De Beers Diamond Jewellers, the ultimate destination for diamond jewellery, is delighted to announce the opening of its new store in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The De Beers store is located on Bogenbai Batyr, 125 in Almaty – the premier shopping location for luxury brands. The Almaty store will be operated by Premier Metro Group, whose core business is the retail and distribution of luxury goods including jewellery, watches, cars, high-end mobile phones as well as fine wines.

Copper-zinc miner HudBay Minerals said Wednesday it has acquired the roughly 2.5m shares in Norsemont Mining it did not already own, giving it 100% ownership. The acquisition is set to increase HudBay's copper output by about 145% when Norsemont's Constancia mine in Peru comes into full production. The news comes a day after the company announced it will spend $144m to build a new concentrator at its Lalor project in Manitoba, Canada.

Truck manufacturer and distributor Powerstar reports that the company has started tapping into the South African construction and mining markets with its low-cost durable trucks. Powerstar executive officer Frans Cloete says that many construction and mining operations in South Africa and in neighbouring countries are situated in remote and isolated areas where maintenance and manoeuvrability of trucks, as well as poor road infrastructure, are pressing issues.

Powerscreen, one of the world’s leading providers of mobile crushing and screening equipment, has launched the new Powerscreen® 1500 Maxtrak, the largest addition to the highly successful Powerscreen® Maxtrak range which includes the 1000, 1000SR and 1300 models.

Australia-based iron ore development company African Iron Limited (ASX: AKI) is pleased to announce a greater than 80% increase to the aggregate exploration target size at its 80%-owned Mayoko Iron Ore Project, located in the Republic of Congo, West Africa. Image of a drilling rig at the Mayoko Iron Ore Project, by African Iron Limited.

After an initial 5% jump, shares in Arabian American Development Co was flat at midday on Wednesday on four times usual volumes following news of a $37m injection into the Texas-based company's Saudi mine by a fund controlled by the League of Arab States. Shareholders in the 44-year old Nasdaq-listed company saw the value of their investment rise a cool $107m as a result of the transaction. The gold, silver and copper mine in a Yemen border province is the only non-government mine in the Saudi kingdom and is scheduled to begin production early next year.

Reuters reports Zimbabwe could take over mines that fall short of laws requiring them to sell majority stakes to locals by September, a government minister said on Wednesday. Mineral-rich Zimbabwe has the world's second largest known platinum reserves after neighbouring South Africa and foreign miners working there include Zimplats Holdings, a unit of Impala Platinum, global mining giant Rio Tinto, and Anglo Platinum.

SouthGobi Resources announced today that the Mineral Resource Authority of Mongolia (MRAM) has issued mining license MV-016869 to its wholly-owned Mongolian operating subsidiary SouthGobi Sands LLC. The new license pertains to the resource previously disclosed by the Company under NI 43-101 standards as the Soumber Deposit.