Top global miner BHP Billiton has moved into the feasibility study stage of preparing a long-awaited expansion of the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine in South Australia.

Southern Copper, one of the world's largest producers of the metal, has postponed its $1 billion Tia Maria mining project in Peru because of social conflicts, Chief Executive Oscar Gonzalez said on Tuesday. The company (SCCO.N: Quote) will revise the project's viability later this month and consider alternative sites in Argentina and Ecuador in the meantime, Gonzalez told local television.

Copper is the most favoured base metal in BlackRock's $17 billion World Mining Trust, fund manager Evy Hambro said on Tuesday, with the demand and supply outlook keeping prices of the metal resiliently high. At just under 20 percent, copper is the single largest weighting on a pure commodity basis in the fund, Hambro told an Association of Investment Companies roundtable in London.

Leighton Holdings subsidiaries Thiess and Leighton Contractors have announced three important new contracts. Thiess has secured a $166 million contract to provide bulk earth works and selected infrastructure for BHP Billiton Iron Ore’s Jimblebar mine near Newman in Western Australia.

Lundin Mining and Inmet Mining late Tuesday called it a day regarding their proposed friendly merger with a kindly farewell: "We continue to think very highly of each other's assets and wish each other well."

A Chinese TV station last week reported ‘through the roof’ gold demand which was leading to a shortage of supplies for fabrication.

According to the multi-year deal, Agnico-Eagle would get an option to own up to a 70% stake in Mranda Gold’s Alaska Gold […]

Rosa Elbira Coc Ich and ten other indigenous Mayan Q’eqchi’ women filed a lawsuit today against Canadian mining companies HMI Nickel, and […]

Global gold miner AngloGold Ashanti reported record earnings in 2010, and credited higher gold prices for the stellar results. In a suite of reports released today, the South Africa-based company said it earned US$787 million last year, up from $708 million in 2009. Revenues were up 41%, from $3.916 billion in 2009 to $5.514 billion in 2010. Image by AngloGold Ashanti