Gold

Western Australia’s manufacturing sector is losing nearly 150 jobs per day as workers chase high wages in mining.

A Zimbabwe government official says a law forcing foreign companies to surrender 51 percent stakes to local people was "an aspiration," not a hard target, Reuters is reporting: "This is a negotiated process, it is not an issue that is dictated to companies. It is more to deal with evaluating and negotiating with each company," Prince Mupazviriho, the permanent secretary in the mines ministry, said during a mining conference on Thursday. The new position by the government is a change from the previous hard-line edict suggesting the 51% requirement was set in stone.

Shares of Paramount Gold and Silver Corp. (NYSE/TSX: PZG) hit a one-month high of $3.22 on Tuesday after the company released a new resource estimate for its Sleeper Gold Project in Nevada. The NI 43-101 resource estimate, prepared by consulting firm SRK, includes oxide and sulfide materials as well as a small amount of alluvial mineralization.

Montréal, September 15, 2011 – “The new mining royalty regime enables us to attain the objectives that we set, i.e. to obtain from mining companies fair compensation for our natural resources without discouraging investment,” Minister of Finance and Minister of Revenue Raymond Bachand said today at a technical information session held jointly with Minister of Natural Resources and Wildlife and Minister responsible for the Plan Nord Clément Gignac. Minister Bachand indicated that the mining royalties the government collected reached $304 million in 2010-2011, more than double the $133 million originally forecast in the 2011-2012 Budget.

VANCOUVER, Sept. 15, 2011 /CNW/ - In 2011, Canadian mining CEOs are enjoying high salaries on par with 2010's blockbuster year for compensation and there has been a rise in mining CEO millionaires this year, according to the 2011 Mining Industry Salary Survey by Coopers Consulting and PwC. In 2011, the average annual base salary for Canadian mining CEOs was $486,000 in 2011, similar to $480,000 in 2010. Of the 95% of CEOs who were eligible for cash bonuses, 85% reported receiving payouts averaging 76% of their base pay (compared to 88% in 2010 and 61% in 2009) with the highest cash incentive percentage totalling 300% of base pay.

Donald Trump is now accepting payment in gold. A commercial tennant who needed to make a security deposit in one of Trump's New York buildings, 40 Wall Street, paid in three 32 oz. gold bars, equivalent to $176,000. Trump, who flirted with a run for President as the Republican nominee, is a critic of the Obama administration.

For the second time this year workers have downed tools at one of the world's largest copper and gold mines. The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting thousands of workers at Freeport-McMoran's gold and copper mine in eastern Indonesia have begun a month-long strike over a wage dispute: Union spokesman Juli Parorongan said roughly 90 per cent of the Papua mine's 12,000 workers were taking part in the action, which began on Thursday.

According to a recently released WikiLeaks cable, China is shifting some of its massive foreign holdings into gold and away from the U.S. dollar, undermining the dollar's role as the world's reserve currency.

Gold Fields, the world's fourth-largest gold producer, aims to produce one-million ounces of the precious metal per year in South America by 2015, the company's regional chief said on Wednesday.