Silver

There's a new appetite for equity financing in the global mining sector, as investors tiptoe back into a market that has fretted about funding for the last six months. Boosted by firm metals prices and a less pessimistic outlook for a still-fragile global economy, many mining companies are again able to sell shares in secondary offerings or tempt investors with an initial public offering.

Australia, Canada, South Africa and many more countries are courting a small, transient, global workforce of engineers, geologists and metallurgists to keep their mining, oil and gas, and energy operations running. What can these major corporations do to secure the right talent? If you’re Rio Tinto, you turn to content marketing.

The Business Standard reports now that platinum trades more in line with the gold price, Indian jewellery buyers are moving back into gold.

A new survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit finds when institutional investors interested in frontier markets were asked to choose two regions out of five, two-thirds see Africa – projected to be the fastest growing region on the planet this year – as holding the greatest opportunity.

CEO Vitaly Nesis said Thursday the company is eyeing acquisitions in Kazakhstan, Armenia, Ukraine, the Russian Far East and Urals, adding that activities in Finland were also of interest.

Silver’s gains for 2012 now stands at over 30% while gold added more than 180/oz in January and February. The last time the Dow closed above 13,000 was in May 2008.

Associated Press reports that two military planes laden with 17 tons of silver and gold coins recovered from a sunken Spanish galleon have touched down in Madrid.

London-based Vedanta Group (LON:VED) announced Saturday a merger of two of its subsidiaries, Sesa Goa and Sterlite Industries, into a new corporate entity to be named Sesa Sterlite.

Canadian miner Mandalay Resources (TSX: MND, MND.WT) announced today that scheduled shipment of concentrate for February from the Cerro Bayo silver-gold mine in Chile has been delayed due to increasing public protests in the south of that country.