Osisko Mining official inaugurated the Canadian Malartic gold mine, a large-scale open pit mine located in Malartic, Abitibi. Canadian Malartic is Osisko's first mine to go into production. Osisko estimates it will extract more than 9 million ounces of gold at Canadian Malartic from now until 2027. The mine currently employs 465 people.

Commission on Higher Education chief Secretary Patricia Licuanan is offering students scholarships to take courses towards the 'most employable' careers in the Philippines, which include mining, aeronautics, geology and software engineering, reports the Philippine Information Agency.

"(These) are jobs but they are very hard to fill so if you go into these areas you are guaranteed to find employment," Licuanan said. She said these courses are among the agency's "priorities" in its list of scholarship beneficiaries, adding that CHED has also removed all the "oversubscribed" courses from the same list. "Overscubscribed" courses are business administration, nursing, teaching, IT, Hotel and Restaurant Management and maritime.

Peru's President Alan Garcia Perez and the Ministry of Energy and Mines have suspended mining concessions in several of the nation's provinces for the next 12 months. The President of the Council of Ministers Rosario Fernandez Figueroa said a multi-sectoral commission has been appointed to study and propose reforms regarding mining concessions.

Canadian mining giant Goldcorp Inc. has been recognized by Nasdaq as one of the Top 100 companies in the world for its sustainability practices. The Index is an equity-weighed index made up of 100 companies that lead in measuring and reporting their carbon footprint, energy usage, water consumption, hazardous and non-hazardous waste generation, workforce initiatives and community investment.

Mining giants warned Australia on Wednesday that its planned carbon-reduction scheme could cost the industry as much as $25 billion through 2020, cut coal production by a third and send investment in that sector tumbling 13 percent. "Australia is walking the plank," Seamus French, who runs the coal division of miner Anglo-American Plc , told a conference, a day after the Australian government's climate-change adviser suggested how carbon emissions should be taxed.

The world's biggest consumer of steel is ready to raise the stakes. Steel demand in China is expected to rise by around 25% by the year 2015, to a huge 750 million metric tonnes. To ensure an adequate supply position, China is set to create three iron ore mining groups, with an output capacity of 100 million tonnes each. Six other groups with a capacity of 30 million tonnes are to be cobbled together to ensure steady supplies. Iron ore is the principal raw material used to make steel.

Shares in Africa-focused Globe Metals and Mining shot up on Monday after it released positive rare earth exploration results. Chinese state-owned firm East China Minerals Exploration and Development Bureau last month became the largest shareholder in Globe when it bought a 53.7 per cent stake.

Monument Mining made $15 million in gross revenues in the first three months of 2011, having sold 10,704 ounces of gold at an average price of $1404/oz. The Vancouver-based gold explorer, which owns two gold properties in Malaysia, said it is on target to exceed 40,000 ounces of gold this year, the company's first year of commercial production. Image by Monument Mining Limited

Two separate Wall Street reports gave fertilizer producers a boost on Tuesday. Investment bank Citigroup upgraded its recommendations for the two top producers Mosaic and Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan to buy citing strong global agricultural fundamentals and reduced Chinese exports. In a separate opinion Barron's magazine over the weekend said Mosaic's stock is worth a look as potash prices are predicted to rise throughout the year thanks to depleted inventories and consolidation among Russian producers.