Lead

Speculators in gold and copper futures and options raised their net long positions in the week ended March 29, while they trimmed bullish bets in the silver market, according to the latest report by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Greystar Resources Ltd. (TSX:GSL)(AIM:GSL) reports that diamond drilling continues to encounter significant gold-silver-copper mineralization below and to the south of the oxide/transitional mineral resource on the multi-million ounce Angostura deposit in northeastern Colombia.

Thompson Creek Metals completed a $132 million equipment financing facility with Cat Financial Services Limited. Cat Financial has agreed to underwrite up to $132 million in mobile fleet equipment financing for Thompson Creek’s Mt. Milligan copper-gold mine located in British Columbia.

World No. 1 copper producer Codelco said on Wednesday it was preparing to halt its Ventanas smelter after a court ordered it to do so following an environmental complaint.

BHP Billiton today announced approval for the Escondida Ore Access project (EOA), the first of a number of development options that will underline Escondida’s status as the world’s premier copper operation. The EOA project will relocate the crushing and conveying facilities currently located inside Escondida’s main pit to improve access to higher grade ore and thereby support higher production from 2013. The project is expected to cost US$554 million (US$319 million BHP Billiton share) and will be completed by mid calendar year 2012.

Barker Minerals Ltd. (TSX-V:BML) reported results from the 2,000m trenching program on its silver/gold/lead Black Bear project. The 100% owned project on China Mountain is located 74 km northeast of Williams Lake, in the Cariboo region of British Columbia.

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.

Ecuador expects companies including Canada's Kinross Gold to invest $7 billion in gold and copper projects in the next seven years, as the OPEC member tries to diversify its economy by encouraging mining. Natural Resources Minister Wilson Pastor said on Tuesday five projects will be signed in the next few months.