Copper

Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista, number one on MINING.com's list of the world's wealthiest miners, is about to get even richer as the tycoon is in talks to sell a 49% stake in his gold mining company, AUX, to Qatar Holding, the investment arm of that country's sovereign wealth fund.

Chile’s Chemical and Mining Society (SQM), the world’s largest lithium producer, has won a tender to develop a lithium concession in the country, which produces nearly 40% of the increasingly popular metal.

Western Australia's Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) is on the verge of bringing its DeGrussa copper mine on line in accordance with its original schedule and budget targets.

Whip smart and devious, Frederick Heinze took advantage of the so-called apex law, a provision that allowed owners of a surface outcrop to mine it wherever it led.

When Leily Omoumi, a gold analyst with Scotiabank in Toronto, turns her engineer's eye on a mining company, she can translate insight into profits for investors.

First half market shortfall climbs to 292,000 tonnes as mine production grows just 2.4%.

Diversified miner Xstrata (LON:XTA) and commodities trader Glencore International (LON:GLEN) have now until October 1 to decided on the $36 billion lauded merger.

Rio Tinto’s flagship $5.2 billion copper-gold Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia near the Chinese border – one of the biggest mining projects in the world – is practically ready to go, except for one “detail”: it needs power supply to kick-start operations.

Initial exploration activity in the vicinity of the Prosperity deposit date back to the early 1930s.