Cashed-up Rio Tinto is expected to post a first-half net profit of more than $US8 billion, driven by prices of iron ore, aluminium and copper. The earnings season gets into full swing tomorrow when the miner reports, with consensus among analysts for a 39.1 per cent jump in first-half underlying profit from $US5.77 billion to $US8.03 billion. The iron ore division is expected to contribute nearly 80 per cent of the net profit, lifting its performance by more than 50 per cent a year ago to about $US6.2 billion.

Australia's Treasurer Wayne Swan may soon have another foreign investment headache on his hands, as a Chinese entrepreneur says he has Beijing's backing to step around Australian investment rules and become the world's fourth force in iron ore. Liu Han, chairman Hanlong Group said the company could achieve it within 10 years, giving China ''a say'' in iron-ore price negotiations and stem as much as $80 billion in national losses flowing to the big producers.

A strike in South Africa's gold mining sector ended on Tuesday after a 2-year wage deal was clinched, unions and the Chamber of Mines said. The strike at AngloGold Ashanti , Gold Fields and Harmony began last Thursday and halted output worth up to $25 million a day at bullion's current record prices. About 100,000 gold mine workers will to return to work, starting with the Tuesday night shift. The companies' share prices extended gains on the news as gold scaled new highs over $1,635.00 an ounce on growing concerns about Europe's debt woes and anaemic U.S. growth data.

Anglo-Swiss mining giant Xstrata said on Tuesday its first half net profit jumped 27 per cent to $US2.9 billion and that it expected even better earnings for the second half. "A substantially stronger financial performance in the first half reflected growing demand for our products from emerging Asian economies and recovering Western markets," Xstrata chief executive Mick Davis said in a statement.

Businessweek quotes a confidential report prepared for South Africa's mining CEOs as saying South Africa’s ruling party is closer to some form of nationalization than at any other time since the end of apartheid. A government takeover of mines could choke investments in a country with metal and mineral reserves estimated at 2.5 trillion and lead to a collapse of the currency, the rand. Firebrand Julius Malema (pictured), the leader of the youth wing of the ruling African National Congress which often acts as kingmaker in the country’s politics, is spearheading the campaign to seize mines, farms and banks. Malema is never far from headlines in the country with racially charged comments but now an anti-corruption police unit is probing a trust fund owned by him allegedly being used to funnel payments in exchange for securing government tenders.

African Minerals Ltd., closed up 7.1% in London on Monday after completing an investment accord with Shandong Iron & Steel Group Co bringing the counter's gains for the year to 57% and giving it a market capitalization of some $3.6 billion. Shandong will invest $1.5 billion for a 25% stake in African Minerals' massive the Tonkolili iron-ore project in Sierra Leone. Phase I of the project will cost $1.2bn and includes railway and port reconstruction in the war torn country while phase II and III will add another $8 billion to the bill. Sierra Leone, one of the world's poorest nations, is attracting increasing investments in its natural resources which also include diamonds and bauxite.

The Korea Herald reports a Korean consortium forged an agreement with Bolivia’s state-run miner Comibol over the weekend to manufacture lithium-ion battery parts, boosting Korea’s bid to tap the largest lithium deposits in the world. A research project involving extracting lithium will begin next month at Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni – an 11,000 square kilometers salt flat (pictured) – with plans for constructing lithium-carbonate processing facilities. The soft, silver-white metal is widely used in rechargeable batteries for mobile phones, laptops and electric cars and the price has been steadily increasing prompting talk of a Opec-style cartel to control production and prices among South American nations that together control 85% of the world's resources.

Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Cop. said it has completed the acquisition of a 45.54 percent stake in Carmen Copper Corp. owned by a Singapore-based investment fund. Atlas recently raised $390 million in debt and equity to finance the deal. Carmen Copper is acknowledged as Southeast Asia’s largest copper mine during its peak, serving as a major backbone of Cebu in the Philippines' economy for over 50 years before a devastating typhoon and metal price slump led to the mine’s closure in 1994.

In late morning trade shares in Miraflores-based Portage Resources had gained more than 12% after announcing a 10:1 future stock split that would, after cancellation of some of the shares held by its CEO, bring the total number in issue to a whopping 4.45 billion. When MINING.com reported on Portage Resources a fortnight ago the counter had gone from 2c to 65c a share in the matter of three months. The explorer has been snapping up properties in Peru hitting pay-dirt with reserves of 58 million ounces of silver at one of them. Portage is a prime example of how volatile stocks in juniors miner can be: its 52-week high is $1.24 and despite Monday's 12% jump to 32c, the stock is worth half of what it was just five trading days ago.