Copper

Miners who don’t show up to work the Christmas and New Year period at Sandfire Resources’ DeGrussa copper and gold mine in Western Australia, are being threatened with major fines and pay cuts.

Mining giants Rio Tinto and Anglo American are selling a 74.5% shareholding in the South African copper company Palabora Mining to a consortium of Chinese and South African firms, in a deal valued at about $611 million.

Glencore has extended the deadline to complete takeover of Xstrata (LON:XTA) by a month after South African power utility Eskom expressed worries about its coal supplies.

Resource nationalism is one of the main causes of the current commodity prices instability and it is threatening global security, warns London-based Chatham House in its latest report.

The government of Afghanistan announced Friday its preferred bidders for three of its four current mineral tenders, with a consortium backed by City of London banker Ian Hannam, former BHP Billiton CEO Chip Goodyear and Poland’s multibillionaire Jan Kulczyk, emerging as the biggest winner.

Venerable Antarctic work program forced to extend deadline due to lack of applicants

Chinese economy to recover via investment in infrastructure and property

Consultants have been escorted out of the area.

Gold will average $1,853/oz