Preliminary estimates from Metals Economics Group’s (MEG) Corporate Exploration Strategies (CES) study indicate that 2011 nonferrous exploration budgets will exceed $17 billion for expenditures related to precious and base metals, diamonds, uranium, and some industrial minerals.

Nine months overdue, the diamond marketing contract between the Government of Botswana and De Beers will finally be signed tomorrow in Gaborone, Mmegi reported on Thursday.

Encouraged by test work that revealed extraction potential using its own technology at one of the world’s largest known glauconite deposits, Perth-based Potash West on Wednesday expanded it exploration tenure by almost 40% to 2,905km² in Australia's wheatbelt. The company raised $6 million on the Sydney bourse in May this year hoping to become the first Australian firm to break into the lucrative potash market dominated by about 10 mainly Canadian companies. Global potash prices currently average $500 a tonne, up more than 40% from 2008-recession lows.

A Zimbabwe government official says a law forcing foreign companies to surrender 51 percent stakes to local people was "an aspiration," not a hard target, Reuters is reporting: "This is a negotiated process, it is not an issue that is dictated to companies. It is more to deal with evaluating and negotiating with each company," Prince Mupazviriho, the permanent secretary in the mines ministry, said during a mining conference on Thursday. The new position by the government is a change from the previous hard-line edict suggesting the 51% requirement was set in stone.

The Northwest Transmission Line, which will bring power to number of potential mines in British Columbia, will be in service by the end of 2013. Rohan Soulby, Director, Export Transmission Development for Powerex, provided an update on the project during a Thursday luncheon with the Vancouver, BC Branch of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum. Soulby said that the line will be able to do 300,000 kW when it comes into service. With further upgrades, he said the ultimate capacity of the transmission line will be north of 400,000 kW.

Zimbabwe's mines minister on Thursday told delegates at a conference in the capital Harare that the government has received 400 applications from companies interested in mining diamonds, despite an international ban on the export of gems from the rich Chiadzwa alluvial fields. The news comes as Zimbabwe appears to scale back its ambition to force foreign miners to hand over majority ownership with the minister saying the country would not suspend any mining permits and that exceptions may be made to the so-called indigenization laws.

Canadian Arrow Mines could soon be mining nickel again at its Kelex and Alexo mines near Timmins, Ontario. The Toronto-listed company (TSX-V:CRO) has received regulatory approvals to resume production with a small-tonnage, open-pit operation at the Kelex Central West pit, which was exposed, but only superficially mined, before suspension of production in 2005 due to nickel prices falling below US$5/lb.

TSX-V junior Prophecy Coal was trading up 6% by early afternoon on Thursday after jumping 11% earlier in the day on news that the Mongolian government has given the go-ahead for a power plant at the mouth of its Chandgana mine. Prophecy – which also controls a Yukon platinum explorer – has more than 1.4 billion tonnes of surface minable thermal coal resources at Chandgana and its producing mine Ulaan Ovoo for which it recently signed offtake agreements in Russia. There is renewed interest in Mongolian coal assets and earlier this week an Australia-based firm exploring in the fast-growing country was sold for a 800% profit a mere 18 months after its IPO.

Shares of Paramount Gold and Silver Corp. (NYSE/TSX: PZG) hit a one-month high of $3.22 on Tuesday after the company released a new resource estimate for its Sleeper Gold Project in Nevada. The NI 43-101 resource estimate, prepared by consulting firm SRK, includes oxide and sulfide materials as well as a small amount of alluvial mineralization.