Bloomberg reports Rio de Janeiro-based Vale SA, the world’s largest iron-ore producer, said prices for the raw material have stabilized and are recovering from “rock bottom” levels as a result of lower-than-expected production and strong demand from China, India and South America. Iron ore for immediate delivery has gained 8% to $126.30 a tonne since reaching its lowest level in almost two years at the end of October. During the month iron ore prices crashed almost 30% forcing the big three – BHP, Vale and Rio Tinto control nearly 70% of the 1 billion tonne annual iron ore seaborne trade – to renegotiate quarterly contracts with Chinese buyers to bring values more in line with the spot price.

Silvercorp Metals on Tuesday reported revenue of $62.1 million for its second quarter, up 71% from the same period last year. Cash flow from operations hit a record $35.2 million, or $0.20 per share, up 140% from 2011 while net income of $18.5 million, or $0.11 per share, showed a 49% increase. Silver production of 1.4 million ounces rose a disappointing 4% but gold production shot up to 2,516 ounces. Silvercorp said it continues to maintain its low cost producer status with a cash production cost per ounce of silver of negative $4.55.

Platts reports that the global operations headquarters of US giant Peabody Energy will be relocated to Brisbane following the acquisition of Australia's Macarthur. Peabody raised $3.1 billion with the sale of senior notes on Monday and now owns 77.6% of Macarthur after ArcelorMittal pulled out of its joint $5 billion bid for the coking coal producer, just days after the target's top shareholder accepted the offer. Peabody is the world's largest private-sector coal company with 2010 sales of 246 million tons and nearly $7 billion in revenues.

The Guardian reports Scottish ministers are expected to order a public inquiry into plans to build the UK's only new coal-fired power station with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology after it suffered another serious setback. The latest delay follows unprecedented public opposition to the $4.8 billion project and will also damage proponents of CCS – where CO2 emissions are sequestered underground – and the so-called 'clean coal' lobby. Only two small coal CSS pilot projects exist worldwide: Schwarze Pumpe in Germany and Mountaineer Power Plant in West Virginia.

University College London (OCL) in Adelaide, in partnership with BHP, has launched a $2 million program to create scholarships for energy and […]

Stock in White Tiger Gold received another 6.6% bump on Tuesday, bringing its gains over the past week to 38.5% after the company announced it has secured a $15 million loan to ramp up production at its Lamaque project in Val d'Or, Quebec. White Tiger has experienced a flurry of corporate activity recently, installing new senior management and expanding the Lamaque project after sealing the takeover of Century Mining after months of delays due to action from unhappy minority shareholders.

SNC-Lavalin, a major engineering and construction firm, was awarded a $650 million oil sands contract to design and build a froth treatment plant near Fort McMurray. SNC-Lavalin says that the froth treatment plant will process 155,000 barrels of feedstock per day from the bitumen extraction plant in the form of bitumen froth. Engineering is already underway and construction is expected to start this February. The whole project should be completed by September 2014.

Mining and geoscience degrees pay well compared to other degrees, but they are not popular with students. The Wall Street Journal published an interactive chart that compares 173 possible college degrees looking at pay, earnings and current unemployment. While the natural resource sector is still doing well compared to the rest of the economy, it was not surprising that degrees related to the field showed the lowest unemployment and some of the highest earnings. Mining and mineral engineering degree has the third highest median earnings at $101,000 per year. The top paying was petroleum engineering at $127,000 per year. A degree in geological and geophysical engineering was in the top 25 of highest paid out of 173 possible degrees.

Alcoa (NYSE:AA) will undertake the next phase of its five-year, $2.1 billion investment plan for its Baie-Comeau, Deschambault and Becancour smelters in Quebec. "The plan will move the Quebec smelters down the aluminum cost curve by 13 percentage points and contribute to Alcoa’s goal of achieving an overall 10-point improvement. The plan will also increase production capacity by 120,000 metric tons per year and reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said the company, which announced the approval on Monday. Alcoa estimates that 6,800 job-years will be sustained during the construction, and there will be $500 million of economic spin offs for the region.