The Toronto Sun reports employees from Shell Canada's Muskeg River and Jackpine mines near Fort MacKay were evacuated late Thursday night as wildfires continue to rage in that part of Alberta, Canada. Despite cooler weather and scattered showers on Friday 290 forest firefighters from Alberta, B.C. and the Northwest Territories are still fighting out of control blazes in the Richardson area 60 km north of Fort McMurray where 354,000 hectares have burned. Imperial Oil and Shell Canada say they're working with the government and other oil sands operators to monitor the fire and smoke conditions in the area and Syncrude Canada says all of its staff at its operations in that part of the province are still continuing to work.

Two reports this week suggest that fears of a prolonged period of global economic austerity following the financial crisis have been overblown. In Hong Kong Christie's experienced its best ever auction with buyers spending $469m on wines, antiques, art and particularly jewellery. At $9,342,219, the pictured pair of Golconda diamond ear pendants – dubbed the Imperial Cushions – set an all time record price per carat. At the other end of the scale prices have also been rising at a rapid rate. Demand for one carat and smaller stones from India and China pushed the International Diamond Exchange's polished diamond index to a new record in May surpassing the previous record level achieved in the pre-recession summer of 2008 and up 12.5% so far this year.

Mining Weekly Online quotes Karnalyte Resources CEO Robin Phinney as saying that its Wynyard project in Saskatchewan has enough resources to eventually produce 6m tons of potash a year and that the company is considering bringing in joint venture partners to do so. Karnalyte initially expects to ramp up production by 500,000 tons per year to reach 2m tons by 2016/2017 at a cost of $1.5bn. The company on Friday was trading at $11, up 42% since it debut on the TSX mid-December last year.

Columbus Gold Corporation announced on Friday the acquisition of three new projects in the Greater Mahogany Hills, bringing its total gold property portfolio in Nevada to 26, covering approximately 37,000 acres. Columbus Gold plans to complete mapping and further sampling with plans to drill target areas in late 2011 and 2012. Columbus Gold is a gold exploration and development company operating in French Guiana and Nevada. In French Guiana, Columbus Gold recently acquired an option to earn a 100% interest in the Paul Isnard gold project, which has a 43-101 compliant 1.9 million ounce inferred gold resource and substantial expansion potential.

SouthGobi Resources announced that it has been notified by the Mineral Resource Authority of Mongolia (MRAM) that the company's Soumber coal deposit has been officially registered. The registration process includes calculation of resources to Mongolian standards, review of the calculations by MRAM-appointed industry experts, and defense of the calculations before the Minerals Resource Committee. Mineral deposit registration is a prerequisite for applying for a Mining License.

London Stock Exchange Group and its takeover target, TMX Group, said Friday Canadian competition authorities won't challenge the proposed combination of two exchange operators. The issuance of the no action letter satisfies a condition of a Feb. 9 agreement by LSE and the company that operates the Toronto Stock Exchange to join forces in a $3 billion deal. A consortium of nine major Canadian banks and investment funds called Maple Group Acquisition Corp has made a hostile offer for TMX worth C$3.6 billion ($3.7 billion). The LSE proposal was not expected to raise any red flags from Canadian competition authorities, unlike the Maple bid.

Orvana Minerals announced the commissioning of its El Valle-Boinás/Carlés ("EVBC") gold-copper mine in northern Spain by Kinbauri España S.L.U. ("Kinbauri"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Orvana. EVBC initiated the start-up and commissioning of the mill May 31, 2011, with the first shipment expected in June. EVBC will initially produce at 70% capacity, increasing to its full annual target production levels of over 100,000 ounces gold, 3,900 tonnes copper and over 150,000 ounces of silver once the shaft is completed in early 2012.

Mammoth Energy Group, a lithium and alternative energy mining company, announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary Compania Lithium Investments Limitada of Chile has signed a Letter of Intent to acquire six concessions for a total of 2471 acres (1000 hectares) of lithium concessions located in the Salar de laco in northeast Chile. "The Salar de laco is approximately 10 miles from the border of Argentina and approximately fifty miles away from the Salar de Atacama, Chile's largest mined lithium reserve," said William Lieberman, President of Mammoth Energy Group.

Grande Cache Coal announced its financial and operating results for the three and twelve months ended March 31, 2011. Net income for fiscal 2011 was $27.7 million ($0.28 per basic and diluted share) representing a 38% increase from $20.1 million ($0.21 per basic share and $0.20 per diluted share) in fiscal 2010. Fourth quarter net income was $5.1 million ($0.05 per basic and diluted share) compared to $1.4 million ($0.01 per basic and diluted share) in the same period last year.