Platinum

There is no such thing as an average miner.  There is no such thing as an average salary.  Yet we can get some idea of how well mining people are paid by looking at the average salaries for 2011 on US metal mines recently published CostMine.

Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives by mining companies operating in emerging markets in South America, Africa and Asia have become a crucial part of doing business as “above-ground risks are quickly gaining equal footing to traditional geological and engineering considerations for mining projects.”

Apart from Russian reserves no longer distorting the market, South Africa's dwindling supply is bound to boost prices further.

Planetary Resources took the wrapper off the new company that plans to mine asteroids, and the company has half a road map on how to get precious metals out of the sky.

Google's billionaire co-founders Larry Page and Eric Schmidt and filmmaker James Cameron will officially announce today plans to mine asteroids. The company's presentation will be broadcast live today at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Diversified miner Anglo American Plc. (LON:AAL), announced today it has sold the South African Scaw Metals Group business for $430 million to a group of partners, on a move to refocus on its core mining business.

The construction of Wesizwe's Bakubung mine is in sharp contrast to the the general gloominess that currently envelops South Africa's platinum sector

While we may receive confirmation on Tuesday that James Cameron and some Google executives are going to start mining in space, CBC asked its readers if it's even a good idea and found strong support.

In a supply risk index of chemical elements that are of economic value, four elements placed ahead of rare earth.