Noront Resources has completed a brokered placement worth $17.4 million, the Toronto-listed junior explorer announced yesterday. The deal will give Baosteel the right to increase its stake in Noront to 19.9%. It will also give Baosteel, a large steel producer owned by the Chinese government, a seat on Noront's board of directors. Proceeds from the placement will be used for feasibility studies on Noront's Eagle's Nest nickle-copper-palladium property and the Blackbird chromite deposit in the Ring of Fire poly-metallic mining district in northern Ontario, Canada.

Motley Fool puts Saskatchewan’s Potash Corp. through the Warren Buffet test this week. Ilian Moscovitz of the investment site rates the world’s biggest fertilizer manufacturer in terms of the criteria – consistent earnings, good management and a simple business among others -- laid out by the legendary investor in Berkshire Hathaway's most recent annual results filing. There is renewed interest from investors in Potash Corp., which operates six mines in the Canadian province, on the back of rising global food prices, record earnings at the company, and after BHP Billiton’s nearly $40bn hostile takeover bid was scuppered by the federal government in November last year.

Barrick Gold announced today that it has received confirmation that the Investment Canada Act does not apply to Barrick's proposed acquisition of all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Equinox Minerals Limited. This confirmation has been obtained in connection with the previously-announced offer by Barrick's wholly-owned subsidiary, Barrick Canada Inc., to acquire, subject to the terms and conditions of the Offer, all of the Equinox Shares at a price of C$8.15 per Equinox Share.

Mining Weekly reports that the Western Australian Chamber of Minerals and Energy (CME), the Queensland Resources Council (QRC), and the national industry skills council, SkillsDMC, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to identify strategies to source skills for the Australian mining industry over the next three years.

In a joint statement, the three parties said on Tuesday that the projects under the MoU included defining and implementing a national skills policy for the resources sector, providing workforce planning data, brokering funds to support skills objectives, and establishing lead agencies for projects to maximse the strength and opportunities provided by the partners.

A Mine Concept Study conducted by Steffen Robertson Kirsten (SRK) on the Bungaroo South project has confirmed both the technical and financial viability of a mine development. The mine plan supports a 15 million tonnes per year operation with a mine life of 15 years, with production possible by 2015.

The game of corporate musical chairs has ended with more frustrations than success for the two companies concerned, after BC Iron Ltd (ASX: BCI) got annoyed about Regent Pacific withdrawing its original bid, BC Iron then successfully got the bid reinstated through Australia's Takeovers Panel, and then deciding it didn't want to proceed. The end of this chain was the expert's report to BC Iron that, in summary, said Regent Pacific's bid was neither fair nor reasonable.

TSX and Amex-listed Extorre Gold Mines took a step closer to the development of its flagship mine Cerro Moro in Argentina on Tuesday with the approval of the Environmental Impact Assessment and the purchase of the 14,000 ha that cover the project. Extorre, which was spun out of Exeter Resource Corporation last year, said the Project Pre-Feasibility Study is expected in June 2011 and start-up for the high grade gold and silver mine is scheduled for 2012. Capital costs for the mine are some $130m and cash costs are estimated at $201/ounce. Extorre is worth close to $800m on the TSX and is sitting on roughly $33m in cash. The company also owns the Don Sixto projects, and other mineral exploration properties in Argentina.

Newcrest Mining , one of the world's biggest listed gold miners, expects to resume gold production at its Bonikro mine in the Ivory Coast after a stabilisation of political and security situation in the country, it said on Tuesday. The miner said the production impact had been around 8,000 ounces of gold per month. Newcrest suspended operations at Bonikro in late March.

Red Crescent Resources (RCB.TO: Quote) said on Monday that South African miner Petmin (PEMJ.J: Quote) has agreed to acquire a 10.1 percent stake in the Canadian exploration company for C$4.64 million ($4.78 million). Separately, Red Crescent said it had signed a new definitive agreement with privately held Gensay to acquire a 75 percent interest in the Sivas copper project in central Turkey.