Chris Berry, founder of Mountain Partners asset management company, provided an interesting summary of the graphite space while speaking at the recent Graphite Express Conference in Vancouver.

"Shenhua is the most competitive bidder for the project given its technology, transport infrastructure, access to the Chinese market and the backing of the Chinese government," Shenhua CEO Ling Wen told reporters.

Dominique Delorme, President and CEO of La Mancha, noted: "Having quadrupled our resource base to nearly 5 million ounces of gold equivalent since 2007, it is exciting to see that this appears to only be the beginning, as we are just starting to scratch the potential at our Hassaï property, where nine more VMS targets remain to be explored."

In January last year local radio broadcaster Gerry Ortega, who fought hard for a ban on mining on Palawan was slain and now the Philippines' Department of Justice asked for murder charges to be filed against former Palawan Governor Joel Reyes and four others in connection with his death.

Intrepid Potash (NYSE:IPI) was up 2% today on news that its solution mining project near Carlsbad, New Mexico has been approved by the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Goldsource Mines shot up 28% today on news that it has increased indicated coal resources at its Border Coal Project by 48%.

Japan and Canada have formally agreed to launch negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) to eliminate import tariffs on most products and cooperate on developing energy resources, including natural gas and minerals, reports Platts.

Canadian company Roman Copper Corp won Monday's bid for Romania's largest copper mine, beating out three competitors including Australian miner OZ Minerals.

Nautilus Minerals Inc. shares were up almost 24% this morning (TSX:NUS), after the company released solid year end results with, narrowing its full-year loss in 2011 to US$34 million.