Silver

Argentinian gold and silver miner, Extorre Gold Mines (TSX:XG), announced a preliminary economic assessment showing their Cerro Moro gold-silver project producing 848,000 ounces of gold and 47.2 million ounces of silver.

The creation of the world’s first national protocol on sustainable and socially responsible mining was discussed at a meeting held in Argentina last week, called by the government of president Cristina Fernandez.

Silver started this week moving in a positive direction, but is now back under pressure. The metal has yet to return to its February 29 high, and it appears that many investors are deciding not to wait around.

Earlier this week, a fully loaded Brinks truck carrying between $3 million and $5 million in uncirculated loonies and toonies crashed on a snow covered highway in Ontario, Canada.

Canadian exploration companies feel their industry association doesn’t hear them, Neal Smitheman, a lawyer who represents junior mining companies in disputes with First Nations, told CBC.

"They need to clearly indicate to the market what their strategy around Olympic Dam is, around shale gas, all of these things, to return confidence that they're not spending huge amounts of capex for very low returns."

A Canadian company operating a silver mine in Mexico says it is not in any way linked to the recent murder of an anti-mining activist as alleged by human rights activists.

An expedition to uncover £500 million of missing artwork looted by the Nazis during the Second World War has been launched in Germany.

Tailings are materials produced from mining such as milled rock and effluents. In many cases, massive quantities of these materials, regarded as waste, are left from previous operations. Given the potential health and environmental risks associated with tailings, they could be viewed as problems or project deterrents, but then again, they could be viewed as a source of cash.