Franco Nevada reported an adjusted net income of US$21.4 million or 18-cents per share for the first quarter, a 157% increase over the adjusted net income of US$8.3 million or 7-cents per share for the first-quarter 2010. Net income for the first quarter of 2011 was $21.2 million or 18-cents per share, which included a $5.6 million gain, $6.5 million in forex losses and $1.7 million in losses recorded from the equity accounting of Franco's investment in Gold Wheaton prior to the acquisition, which closed on March 14, 201

The Chronicle reports that 45 Ghanaian students have been offered a four-year apprenticeship program with Newmont Akyem. The apprenticeships will be undergone in the US, Ghana or South Africa.

These are initiatives by the company to help disabuse the notion that mining communities are poor, as the companies either did little, or not factor the development of the communities into their programmes.

Europe's No.2 copper producer KGHM (KGHM.WA) nearly tripled its net profit in the first quarter, beating expectations thanks to a rally in metal prices. Poland's state-controlled miner said on Friday its bottom line reached 1.96 billion zlotys ($710 million), compared to 1.84 billion seen in a Reuters poll.

Uranium Energy Corp (NYSE-AMEX: UEC) is pleased to announce that, effective May 11, 2011, the Company has entered into a Share Exchange Agreement with a Nevada company hereby the Company is acquiring a Paraguayan company which holds a 100% legal and beneficial interest in two unencumbered prospecting permits covering 247,000 acres located in the area of Coronel Oviedo, Paraguay, subject to a gross overriding royalty. The total purchase price for the Paraguayan company is the issuance of 225,000 restricted common shares in the capital of the Company. Image by Uranium Energy Corp.

Richmont Mines Inc. (TSX:RIC)(NYSE Amex:RIC) is pleased to announce financial and operational results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2011. Financial results are based on International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") and dollars are reported in Canadian currency, unless otherwise noted.

The wholesale-market gold price continued to fall on Thursday morning in London - hitting a 1-week low of $1480 per ounce - as world stock and commodity markets took another tumble. Silver fell to $32.50 per ounce at the London Fix, nearly $7 down from Wednesday and 33% below the 31-year high of $48.70 set on April 28.

Robert Quartermain's refrain in a Pretium Resources (TSX: PVG) presentation at the Hard Assets conference in New York, May 9-10, was: "This is why I came out of retirement." Quartermain, Pretium president and CEO, was referring to the high-grades of gold at the Brucejack project in BC, Canada, where drillholes have numerous times hit gold measured by kilograms per tonne, not by the usual grams or fractions of ounces per tonne.

Following on the footsteps of an ambitious, $80 billion plan to invest in Quebec's north announced earlier this week, the provincial government is looking at changing its Mining Act, the Montreal Gazette writes: Bill 14, amending Quebec’s Mining Act “in keeping with the principles of sustainable development” was presented Thursday in the Quebec National Assembly.

U.S. number three coal producer and supplier of some 4% of the country’s electricity announced a successful $297.7m bid for an additional tract at its Antelope mine in Wyoming. The new lease would add approximately 350m tons of mineable coal to Antelope, doubling its reserves and adding 12 years of production. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management also recently announced a June 15, 2011 sale date for the West Antelope II South Coal Tract, which contains approximately 56 million mineable tons, according to BLM estimates.