Brazilian mining giant Vale (VALE5.SA: Quote) said on Thursday the government is overcharging it for mineral royalties and will seek a legal review of some the requested payments amid a dispute over debts to the government that could reach $2.4 billion. Vale, the world's largest iron ore miner, insisted it had made payments according to the law and said it disagreed with the government over criteria for calculating what it owed.

The gold:silver ratio, which describes silver's buying power by dividing the per-ounce price of gold by that of silver, has averaged 60:1 over the past 35 years, meaning it's taken 60 ounces of silver to purchase one ounce of gold. Though with silver's most recent push to the $36/oz level, it now takes much less.

Denison Mines reported 1,442,000 pounds of uranium oxide and 2,347,000 pounds of vanadium blackflake last year. The company had originally forecast 1.6 million pounds U3O8 and 2.8 million pounds of vanadium production for 2010. Production for the fourth-quarter totaled 234,000 pounds of uranium oxide and 391,000 pounds of vanadium.

Aquarius Platinum South Africa (Proprietary) Limited ("AQPSA") is pleased to announce that two of its operations have simultaneously achieved one million fatality-free shifts. The Everest Mine reached this milestone on 1 March 2011 for the first time since commencing operations in 2004, while the Kroondal Mine achieved it once again on 4 March 2011.

As unrest in Libya, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries continues to put pressure on the price of oil, the head of Imperial Oil Ltd. is backing a multi-billion-dollar expansion project to bring Canadian oilsands crude to U.S. markets. The Wall Street Journal reports: A pipeline project that's pending U.S. approval is necessary to ensure the reliability and security of oil supplies to the world's largest oil consumer, the head of Imperial Oil Ltd. (IMO) said. Imperial Oil is a Canadian company majority owned by Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), the world's largest publicly traded oil company.

Exploration and mining in mineral-rich Nevada could be affected, CB Online reports: The Nevada Senate passed a bill nearly unanimously Thursday that ends the authority of the state's mining and defunct sugar beet industries to invoke eminent domain to take private land for their own use. Sen. Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, who sponsored SB86, said she focused on the two industries because they represent companies that take property for private enrichment rather than for the public good.

For the second time this year, police have been called to the scene of a mining-related death in Timmins, Ontario. According to a report in The Timmins Times, a 57-year-old man died Thursday morning in an accident at Goldcorp's Hoyle Pond gold mine in Timmins. Paramedics were dispatched to the Hoyle Pond Mine just before the noon hour today in response to a 9-1-1 call that a miner suffered a serious injury after being struck by a piece of heavy equipment underground near the 1400 level.

AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V. (“AMG,” EURONEXT AMSTERDAM: “AMG”) through its Advanced Materials Division, entered into supply agreements with traditional customers for […]

Minera Andes Inc. (TSX:MAI) unearthed 7.5 kilometres of new new high-grade silver/gold veins at its San Jose Mine, Argentina, during exploratory drilling in 2010, the company reported on Thursday. The new veins represent a 44% increase in the cumulative strike length of all veins known at the mine at the end of 2009.