Antofagasta will pay a special dividend of 100 cents a share, the Chilean miner said on Tuesday as it posted a jump in full-year earnings on higher copper prices and production. Earnings per share rose to 106.7 cents, from 67.7 cents, as revenue grew 54.5 percent to $4.58 billion.

Copper Canyon Resources is getting more for its Copper Canyon property along with a spin-off company to develop its other exploration assets.

The Alice Springs-based Lhere Artepe Group has acquired 51% of the CDE Group, taking indigenous ownership of the Australian mining and civil works contracting group to 84%. CDE’s current activities include providing services to Fortescue Metals Group’s Christmas Creek iron ore mine in Western Australia through the Downer EDI contracting group, and to Xstrata for the McArthur River zinc mine in the Northern Territory.

Closely following the CAD$4.9 billion Cliffs-Consolidated Thompson deal earlier this year, Canadian iron ore company New Millenium Capital Corp. has teamed up with Tata Steel Ltd. for a huge iron ore project, The Financial Post reported: With a giant Indian steelmaker providing the cash, New Millennium Capital Corp. is preparing to develop what it thinks will be the largest mine in Canadian history. Following months of due diligence, Montreal-based New Millennium unveiled a joint venture with Tata Steel Ltd. on Monday that will guide financing and construction of its mammoth Taconite iron ore project in Labrador and Quebec.

Merging the Toronto and London stock exchanges will give mining companies greater visibility and is necessary for the exchanges to be competitive, says a senior executive at TMX Group. Canadian Press reports: A senior executive at the TMX Group says the merger between the operators of the Toronto and London stock exchanges will give Canadian miners greater visibility on the world stage and more investment opportunities, The Canadian Press reported. Speaking at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada's convention, Kevan Cowan, head of equities at TSX Markets, said Monday that consolidation in the exchange industry is necessary to compete.

The head of the world's largest and oldest drilling services company says spending on mineral exploration will hit a record pace in 2011 and grow even more in 2012. The Financial Post reports from PDAC: And as CEO Craig Kipp is quick to point out in an interview, that is a great space to be in these days. According to a published forecast he uses, global exploration spending will reach a record US$14-billion this year. And if that sounds like a lot, a whopping US$19-billion is expected in 2012. “The outlook’s pretty good,” Mr. Kipp said in a rather big understatement. He thinks we are starting a three-year run of extremely elevated drilling activity. Mining companies have plenty of cash to burn and are having trouble finding good acquisitions, so it makes sense to spend it on drilling, he said.

Reporting from the PDAC, The London Free Press says the federal government will spend $25 million on mineral exploration over the next five years in the hopes of driving more mining business to Canada. Minister of Natural Resources Christian Paradis made the announcement from the annual mining conference in Toronto on Monday. The announcement more than doubles the initial two-year allocation of $12 million to help develop new ways of looking for deep mineral deposits and to help boost private sector activity in the highly lucrative and increasingly competitive industry, the minister's office said.

Ridgemont Iron Ore Corp. (TSX-V:RDG) has concluded a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") with the Toquaht Nation whereby the parties have agreed to an ongoing business relationship with respect to the exploration and development of Ridgemont's Redford iron ore property located on Vancouver Island, outside of Ucluelet, British Columbia. The MOU establishes that Ridgemont and the Toquaht Nation will work together to establish a long term, mutually beneficial and cooperative business relationship.

Ucore Rare Metals Inc. (TSX-V:UCU) announced the first NI 43-101 compliant independent resource estimate for the company's 100%-owned Bokan Mountain rare earth element (REE) project in southeastern Alaska. The resource estimate was prepared by Aurora Geosciences Ltd. ("Aurora") of Yellowknife, NWT which recommends that the deposit merits additional drilling, metallurgical research and economic investigation.