Silver

While 2011 was a near-record year for mining mergers and acquisitions (M&A), with over 2,600 deals worth $149 billion in the global mining sector, 2012 is not looking so good, at least not for Canada. The value of mining M&A tumbled 50% in the first quarter compared to the prior three months, with only one deal over $1 billion, said KPMG in a report.

Hecla's Q1 net income was off 71% to $12.4 million due to a production suspension at Lucky Friday Mine, increased exploration expenses and other one-time charges.

Roman Copper Corp. is suing the Romanian government after the country backed out of a deal to sell its largest state-owned copper mine, Cupru Min Abrud.

Pretium Resources, a gold junior developing the Brucejack and Snowfield properties in British Columbia, today raised $70 million through a share offering.

Draft legislation, a copy of which was seen by the Financial Times on Wednesday, gave "the clearest sign yet that Mongolia is uncomfortable with the large foreign investments that have so far been a mainstay of economic growth."

Releasing the results of a new engineering study failed to move the markets in a positive direction today for Orko Silver (TSX-V:OK), although the resource-heavy Toronto exchanges were also in the red.

Even after today's heavy losses it is still showing gains for the year of 86%.

BHP Billiton addressed shareholder concerns about its ambitious investment plans in four mega-projects on Wednesday saying it will match capital expenditures closely with cash flows and stagger the project pipeline.

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.