Silver

Fortuna Silver Mines boosted production by close to a third last year at its Mexico and Peru silver mines.

With revenues of $60 billion last year and operations at the ends of the earth, few companies are in a better position to take the pulse of the global economy and the resource sector than Caterpillar. But what is it saying about the outlook for 2012?

Vancouver-based mining company Fortuna Silver says it has nothing to do with the shooting death of a protester in a town near the company’s mine site in Mexico.

World number two miner Rio Tinto has taken a majority stake in Ivanhoe Mines, its partner on the massive Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia, purchasing a 51% interest. A favourite stock of punters, Ivanhoe surrendered 4% in Toronto on Tuesday.

Hana Mining moved up 4.32% today on positive drill results from its exploration property in Botswana.

Comex gold and silver futures prices made strong gains in morning trade Monday, with the February gold contract powering to a six week high of $1,679.50 an ounce, up just shy of 1% by midday. Gold is now up over 5% for the year, but still well of the record high above $1,900 hit in September.

Pan American Silver is buying Minefinders for $1.5 billion in a cash and stock deal. Markets reacted negatively to the news with Pan American today losing 8.67% of its value and falling to $22.85 a share in morning trading.

SilverCrest Mines (CVE:SVL), a gold and silver miner operating in Mexico, announced today that the inferred resources at its La Joya property increased by 424% from 24.0 million to 126.0 million silver equivalent ounces.

IDEX News reports BHP Billiton's Ekati diamond mine produced 481,000 carats in the last quarter of 2011, a 29% decline compared to a year ago. 80%-owner BHP Billiton wants to sell the mine, but Ekati could fetch only $300 million to $500 million a new report shows.