Local and state officials in Jenner Township, Pennsylvania, have declared a recently-finished acid mine drainage treatment site to be used for public education, Daily American reports.

The new passive treatment system will take discharge from the former Lion Mining Co. Grove No. 1 deep mine closed in 1998 and combine it with a public pavilion, additional wetlands and tree plantings, according to state Department of Environmental Protection officials. “That’s part of the plan. You want to get the public involved and let them know, educate them about these issues,” Greg Shustrick, a watershed specialist for the Somerset County Conservation District said.

Construction activities have reached peak intensity on the 34-month Maxi Heap Leach Pad project for French nuclear company AREVA at its Trekkopje uranium mine in Namibia, which will feature in IM’s July issue. The Trekkopje JV, comprising Concor Roads & Earthworks as lead partner, together with Grinaker-LTA and Basil Read, reports that it has been consistently achieving its present productivity targets on what is a complicated project that requires precision planning and programme scheduling.

First Uranium announced total gold sales for its financial year ended March 31, 2011 ("FY 2011") of 142,630 ounces of gold, which is a significant increase over the 91,657 ounces sold at the end of March 31, 2010. The Company's consolidated revenue of $172 million for FY 2011, an increase of 86% from $93 million in revenue for FY 2010, resulted in the Company reflecting a $20 million gross profit margin from operations in FY 2011 compared to a loss of $18 million in FY 2010. Remembering that First Uranium remains in a capital development and growth phase, the consolidated pre-tax loss for the year was $76 million, which is a 19% improvement over the pre-tax loss of $94 million in FY 2010.

The rebranding of former fiery leftist Ollanta Humala apparently struck a chord with Peruvian voters as exit polls Sunday showed the former army commander is leading the race to become Peru's next president. The 48-year-old Humala declared victory late Sunday night in an apparently razor-thin win. He would succeed President Alan Garcia on July 28. Image from Agência Brasil under Creative Commons license.

A Russian Finance Ministry official has reportedly said that the State repository has sufficient palladium stocks to continue to export in 2012, while it is also looking to upgrade some of its existing material (Gokhran has sufficient palladium to continue exports in 2012 - report). In their authoritative reviews released last month, both Johnson Matthey and GFMS addressed this issue and the two houses are of similar views with respect to the outlook on this issue.

India, the world's largest diamond processing market, is in a bind. The country that imported close to $7.5 billion in rough diamonds last year has not been able to shake off the embargo on the import of diamonds from Zimbabwe. Traders maintain that this has left the door wide open for more imports into China. In a bid to crackdown on reports that conflict or blood diamonds are being smuggled into India and laundered there, the Indian government had earlier blocked the import of roughs from Zimbabwe.

Martin Engineering and Stahura Conveyor Products (SCP) co-hosted a seminar on conveyor safety to raise safety education and standardize maintenance practices to reduce the risk of injury to individuals working around conveyors. The event featured key speakers from prominent coal industry media, along with engineering experts and top executives, who highlighted the significant progress made in reducing injuries, while introducing new ways to take conveyor safety to the next level. "We are trying to change the way the industry thinks about conveyors," observed Martin Engineering chief technology director and CEMA director, Todd Swinderman. "The equipment has become much more robust and reliable, but basic designs haven’t changed that much."

Diamonds North Resources acquired 100% interest in the Esker gold property in Nunavut. The Esker claim covers several kilometres of gold bearing stratigraphy. Drill intercepts of gold mineralization are as high as 8.2 g/T gold over 13 metres, including 17.7 g/T gold over 5.7 metres; and, 2.4 g/T gold over 71 metres which includes several high grade zones (see table below). For a video presentation on this project visit our website www.diamondsnorth.com. "This low cost staking puts us into a project with wide zones of high grade gold mineralization and significant tonnage potential. As only a small portion of the zone has been tested, our objective is to drill along strike of the known mineralization along the host gabbro units to expand the gold-bearing mineralized zone," says Mark Kolebaba President and CEO of Diamonds North.

One of 2010’s glamour floats in Australia, Middle Island Resources Ltd (ASX: MDI) has decided to join some global majors, including BHP […]