Stillwater Mining (NYSE:SWC), the only platinum and palladium miner in the United States, evacuated about 200 workers from its underground mine in Montana yesterday.

A dispute between investment banker Euro Pacific Canada Inc. and Midlands Minerals Corp. (CVE:MEX) is drawing in two of the biggest names in the gold investing industry. The Globe and Mail is reporting that Euro Pacific Canada is seeking damages of $10 million from Midlands over a breach of contract — an amount that is actually larger than the tiny explorer's market cap of $7.21 million based on today's counter.

Gold for December delivery had shed $40 or more than 2% by lunchtime coming close to breaching the $1,600/oz level in New York before before regaining some ground to trade at $1,618 an ounce by early afternoon. Traders said the metal is likely to remain a “dead trade” until it can resume its role as a fear barometer and is able to rally in face of equities weakness and that a "solid downtrend" has now been established. Some analysts are saying gold's precipitous $300 drop in September represented a fundamental market shift and that gold's fall despite market volatility and economic uncertainty means the metal has lost its safe haven status and is being treated like any other commodity.

The rout in industrial metals has claimed another victim: iron ore. On the same day that copper tumbled nearly 7% for its biggest slide in a month, Bloomberg reports that iron ore's largest decline in 15 months is showing no signs of recovery, according to analysts:

Reuters reports Outokumpu said it expected to report a significant operating loss in its final quarter as weak demand and prices continued to hit margins forcing the stainless steel maker to cut up to 1,300 jobs in an effort to reduce costs after brought on by the declining value of its raw material inventories. While Europe's woes have been well-documented, the Finnish multinational's announcement is further evidence of a changing dynamic in the iron ore and steel market. On Tuesday Chinese steel mills forced the world’s number one iron ore producer Vale to bend over contract pricing after falls in the spot iron ore price.

Mining contractor Mastermyne is opening a new NSW training facility for underground miners, and wants it to be running early next year, possibly in the Illawarra, reports the Illawarra Mercury.

The simulated mining experience, built using shipping containers, would be modelled on the company's existing facility in Mackay. Managing director Tony Caruso said BlueScope Steel's decision to cut about 800 jobs at the Port Kembla steelworks was the "catalyst to get things moving". "When we saw the BlueScope announcement we thought it made sense to look at that, and obviously there's a large pool of labour there that's going to become redundant and is going to need somewhere to go."

The UK Daily Record reports a judge hearing how four miners died following safety breaches in 2006 and 2007 at Britain's biggest mining firm – UK Coal – has indicated he will not impose fines at a level which would "cripple" a company which in court was described as being in a "pretty desperate situation". UK Coal is a shadow of its former self – in May 2008 it was trading at £5.84 while on Thursday in London trade the company exchanged hands for 34p giving it a market capitalization of not much more than £100 million.

Eastern Platinum (TSE:ELR), xxx, said that stike action by one of its mining contractors at the company's flagship Crocodile River Mine is reducing mine output by 50%, which amounts to about 210 ounces of lost platinum group metal production each working day. JIC Mining Services, one of the largest mining contractors in South Africa, and the National Union of Mineworkers have not yet reached an agreement. About 756 JIC employees working at CRM have joined the strike. Eastern Platinum says it is not involved in this dispute.

In the never-ending quest to find really cool places to roller blade, film makers must have scored a coup when they were given permission to "bomb" down a defunct Polish salt mine. The high speed stunt went viral on YouTube with over 300,000 views since it was uploaded this summer.