Following on the footsteps of an ambitious, $80 billion plan to invest in Quebec's north announced earlier this week, the provincial government is looking at changing its Mining Act, the Montreal Gazette writes: Bill 14, amending Quebec’s Mining Act “in keeping with the principles of sustainable development” was presented Thursday in the Quebec National Assembly.

U.S. number three coal producer and supplier of some 4% of the country’s electricity announced a successful $297.7m bid for an additional tract at its Antelope mine in Wyoming. The new lease would add approximately 350m tons of mineable coal to Antelope, doubling its reserves and adding 12 years of production. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management also recently announced a June 15, 2011 sale date for the West Antelope II South Coal Tract, which contains approximately 56 million mineable tons, according to BLM estimates.

Silvercorp Metals reported in Q4 that net earnings were up 29% to $12.6 million, or $0.07 per share, compared to net earnings of $9.8 million, or $0.06 per share, in the same quarter last year. It also said that quarterly cash flows from operations up 44% to $34.3 million, or $0.20 per share, from $23.8 million in the same quarter last year. Production was 1.05 million ounces of silver in the quarter, resulting in a record annual production of 5.3 million ounces of silver and achieved the fifth consecutive year of production growth.

Colorado Rare Earths announced today that initial sampling during claim staking has returned high levels of the Heavy Group Rare Earth Elements (HREE). The results, based on grab samples from the Company’s claims at Iron Hill, a.k.a. Powderhorn, and Wet Mountains locations in Colorado, were analyzed by Actlabs, www.actlabs.com, of Ontario, Canada. A United States Geological Survey report, released in December 2010, “The Principal Rare Earth Elements Deposits of the United States,” identified the Iron Hill Complex and Wet Mountains Area as the only two rare earth elements deposits located in Colorado.

Uranium Resources does not expect to return to production in Texas in 2011 given current uranium pricing, unfavourable sales contracts and less than lucrative resources that are available. Uranium Resources made the statement in its 2011 first quarter update on Thursday. Instead the company is focused on reclamation activities in Texas since its two remaining operating wellfields were fully depleted in June 2009.

IAMGOLD Corporation reported its unaudited consolidated financial and operating results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2011. Net earnings were $162.3 million ($0.41 per share), an increase of $102.1 million compared to the first quarter of 2010, and operating cash flow was $205.8 million ($0.55 per share1), representing an increase of 177% from the first quarter of 2010. "Our strong first quarter results reflect our focused strategy to maximize the value of mines that we own and operate," said Steve Letwin, IAMGOLD's President and CEO. "Attributable gold production was up 41% year-over-year driven chiefly by the inclusion of Essakane along with higher recoveries at Rosebel. We continue to benefit from higher gold prices and are implementing various initiatives to reduce our cash costs."

GIW Industries is co-sponsoring a new web-based course on slurry pumping with the USF Polytechnic Florida Industry and Phosphate Research Institute. It consists of six modules covering Slurry Pumping Basics, Testing and Evaluation of Slurry, Cavitation, Modeling, Field Work and Maintenance.

The course will cover major findings of the FIPR Institute's slurry pumping research projects and builds on GIW's training and industrial experience with pump systems. Topics covered in the course are applicable to mine managers, engineers, pump designers, operators and maintenance technicians, enabling them to sharpen their skills and improve their technical competence.

German technology and German know-how are to help the Colombian coalmining sector, underground mining in particular, to become safer and increase its production. A strategic co-operation is planned that is to comprise not only a safety partnership but also technology transfer. Juan Gabriel Ceballos Campuzano is the owner of Colombia’s old-established family mining firm Soc Central de Activos Mineros, based in the Colombian capital of Bogotá.

Toronto- and Johannesburg-listed Uranium One, which boasts the lowest production costs in its industry, has reported record quarterly revenue, of USD 101.9m, for first-quarter 2011, based on sales of 1.7m pounds of uranium at average sales prices of USD 61/lb, and total cash costs of just USD 14/lb.