Earlier today, Vancouver-based Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (NYSE and TSX: RBA), the world's largest on-site and online auctioneer of heavy equipment and trucks, reached and exceeded US$1 billion in online equipment sales for 2011 alone.

Quebec's reputation as a mining-friendly jurisdiction is threatened by revisions to the province's mining code, says a letter released last week by the Quebec Mining Association.

A Chilean civil court told Japanese Mitsubishi today that it has three working days to respond to the lawsuit filed by Codelco in the context of the conflict with Anglo American. Codelco's legal action seeks to annul the $5.39 billion deal between Anglo and Mitsubishi, after the Japanese company sold its 24.5 percent stake in Anglo American Plc’s Sur unit.

Giant terrestrial planets also know as “Carbon super-Earths” that contain up to 50 per cent diamond may possibly be in the Earth's galaxy, a new study suggests. But if they exist, those planets are unlikely to have any sort of life and incapable of supporting it.

Brazil's Vale is set to move its first coking coal shipment next week from its Moatize mine in Mozambique, sources told Reuters on Tuesday. This will be the first coking coal shipment, after 3 thermal coal shipments, and is destined for steelmaker ArcelorMittal's South African unit. Vale last month approved a $6 billion expansion of Moatize to double output to 22 million tonnes per year.

Based on new research by investment bank Macquarie titled India’s Fatal Attraction, the FT asks if India’s weddings are destroying its economy given the huge importance of gold in the culture – especially between October and January, when festival season turns into wedding season and some 20 million Indians tie the knot.

Barron's Deal Journal reports John Paulson's gold fund is the one bright spot in his portfolio year to date, but even it is lagging other gold ETFs.

Anvil Mining, a copper producer in the Democratic Republic of Congo, announced Wednesday China's Minmetals Resources has extended its $1.3 billion takeover offer for the second time, to January 11 next year. The extension comes as violence and allegations of vote rigging mar the DRC presidential election, for which full results is now only expected later this week. Anvil is also undergoing an audit of its leases with the DRC's state-owned Gecamines.

Vancouver-based Rubicon Minerals has passed a key hurdle in its plan to develop the Phoenix gold project in Red Lake, Ontario.