Harmony Gold said on Friday that its Tshepong mine in South Africa remained shut and that lost production was expected to be 20 to 25 kgs of gold per day. South Africa's third largest gold miner said on Tuesday operations at Tshepong had shut after a worker died there following a rock fall.

Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited (Harmony) announces that higher production from its growth assets resulted in overall production being higher quarter on quarter. Gold production for the June 2011 quarter is likely to be 3% higher than the previous

Shareholders are advised that DRDGOLD expects its group gold production for the year ended 30 June 2011 (FY2011) to be about 10% higher than in the previous year, at around 265 200oz. Cash operating unit costs for FY2011 are expected to be about 8% higher. It is estimated that capital expenditure for FY2011 will be about 70% higher than the previous year, reflecting the continued development of the Crown/Ergo pipeline.

Local shares have closed lower, dragged down by losses in Australian mining giant BHP Billiton.The market also had a weak lead from overseas markets, after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke deflated investors' stimulus hopes.The All Ordinaries

European Goldfields has raised its total resource and reserve estimates due to revised figures from its Skouries and Olympias projects in Greece, prompting a rise in its shares.

BBC's Jeremy Clarkson, a car enthusiast who hosts the show Top Gear, ran a documentary on an underground mine in Kalgoorlie, Australia, and learned about the exceptional wear-and-tear exacted on the vehicles. "Here, 2,700 feet down there are machines that have never and will never see the light of day. In one mine there are 300 miles of roads and that means the only means to get about is in a car. They are used for getting men, machines and explosives to the face, and then getting the hell out," narrates Clarkson.

Supplies in the U.S. copper scrap market remained tight at the start of the third quarter, as a lingering slump in industrial demolition rates made material, especially higher-grade material, harder to come by.

Shares in the platinum and precious metals mining company rose as much as 6.4% at the start of the session to an intraday high of $4.98 before the broad market soured during Fed Chairman Bernanke’s second day of testimony on Capitol Hill.

"Many of the Opera House diamond merchants' clients are from Israel...they are no strangers to terror and blasts," said Vasant Mehta, a leading merchant who was at home recovering from fever when the blast tore through Mumbai's congested diamond district.