Silver

A new report from research firm TNS could have implications for mining. A survey of affluent households around the world — defined as greater than $100,000 — found that 80% of the world's wealthy live in Western countries.TNS's Global Affluenty Investor study conducted interviews across 24 markets including China, Brazil and India.

Aurcana Corporation ("Aurcana" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:AUN)(OTCQX:AUNFF)(PINK SHEETS:AUNFF) is pleased to report silver production for Q3 2011 of 244,243 ounces that is based on just 80 days of mill production at La Negra. Year-to-date ("YTD"), silver production has increased 26% to 742,026 ounces, compared to 587,057 ounces in 2010. As anticipated, Q3 2011 silver production was slightly lower than 2010's 250,953 ounces as a result of the La Negra ball mill being down nine mill days in order to upgrade a ball mill. Due to this maintenance, total mill feed of 119,772 tonnes was 4% lower than the 125,050 tonnes for Q3 of 2010.

Westminster Resources ("Westminster" or "the Company") has now compiled results for the recent 2,000 metre drilling program at the Company's Sonora, Mexico properties.

Businessweek reports on the day it cleared and matched its first gold trade the London Metal Exchange which handles some 80% of global trade in metals futures, told members on Tuesday that it has receive "many" expressions of interest from potential bidders. The 134-year-old exchange is facing increased competition from other exchanges in Asia and is plagued by a backlog of industrial metals particularly aluminum that’s building at warehouses. LME-monitored warehouses contain 6.7 million metric tons of metal and at some warehouses such as Detroit it can take as long as seven months to withdraw metal. The LME is looking to start trading silver next year.

Mercator Minerals was changing hands for $1.24, down 7.4% and a new year-low, at the opening of trade on Tuesday despite announcing record production at its Mineral Park Mine in Arizona. The counter has had a dismal year and so far is down 68% on the Toronto exchange in 2011 where it is worth $330 million. Production for the quarter totalled 10.5 million pounds of copper, 2.0 million pounds of molybdenum and 178,000 ounces of silver. Recoveries of copper and molybdenum also increased 7.3% and 3.2%, respectively to average 80.0% for copper and 77.8% for molybdenum.

Nautilus Minerals (TSE:NUS), a Toronto-based miner seeking to extract minerals from the ocean floor, uploaded some multimedia showing how it will mine the sea floor. The company is exploring for copper, gold, silver and zinc in seafloor massive sulphide (SMS) deposits, equivalent to land-based volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits such as Kidd Creek in Canada. The company's main focus is Solwara 1 Project, located off Papua New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean. The mineralised zone is about 1.3 km long and up to 200 m wide. It has been drilled up to depths of 19 m below the seafloor. Water depth is approximately 1600m.

Shareholders who held onto their Silvercorp Metals stock during the rollercoaster ride that started on September 2 when the company had to disclose fraud allegations and a massive short position in its stock, had something to show for their loyalty on Friday. Silvercorp, China's biggest silver miner, is now worth more than it was before the scam was exposed. You had to have nerves of steel though – volumes sky-rocketed, intra-day swings reached 22% and at one point shell-shocked owners were down a net 30%. And what is most remarkable: Silvercorp's gains are into the teeth of a silver price that has dropped 27% and a sector slaughtered along with it.

President Ollanta Humala signed Peru's new mining law on Wednesday, which will raise about $1 billion a year. The money is to be directed to the poorest parts of the country and help build schools and infrastructure. Mining companies will now pay taxes based on their operating profits, ranging from 1% to 12%, rather than old regime where they paid 1% to 3% based on sales. There will also be a windfall profits tax ranging from 2% to 8.4% of a company's net profits.

Orvana Minerals Corp. TSX:ORV has applied for a permit to begin mining its Copperwood project in Michigan. The environmental permit is one of 13 permits needed to mine in Michigan.