Potash will play a huge role in Saskatchewan's predicted economic growth of an average rate of 3.5% over 2011 and 2012, according to the latest economic forecast by Scotiabank. Potash production is expected to climb close to its 2007 peak of 11 million tonnes in 2011, after suffering a dramatic 60% drop during the recession of 2009.

Stocks of Allana Potash Corp was trading slightly up at midday on Thursday after the company announced it had intersected strong potash mineralization in an area not previously drilled at its 160 square km Dallol project in Ethopia. Listed on the TSX-Venture exchange Allana's East Africa project has the backing of the World Bank and most of the assets there are still being quantified. The value of the company has doubled in 2011 and investors who bought the stock in July last year would have enjoyed a four-fold return.

Due to government-announced carbon taxes, the University of Queensland (UQ) is offering free workshops on managing carbon costs, led by academics who understand the issues facing the mining industry in relation to commercial and environmental sustainability, Australian Mining reports.

The workshops include ‘calculating a carbon footprint, calculating carbon costs and savings, and identifying new business opportunities as a result of carbon management strategies’. UniQuest managing director David Henderson explained that the workshops are a response to a growing need for evidence based support.

Clive Cowdery, the Resolution Ltd. founder who made about $240 million buying and selling insurers, is betting on diamonds after prices rose five times faster than gold this year on surging demand from China and India. Cowdery, 48, is among startup investors in Diamond Capital Ltd.’s $20 million fund that will manage a portfolio of the polished gems valued at as much as $400,000 apiece.

Twenty-eight miners were still trapped underground Thursday while 63 others were rescued after a fire broke out in a coal mine in China's Shandong province Wednesday night, Xinhua reported. A total of 91 people were trapped after an air compression device located in a parking lot 255 metres underground caught fire at 6.45 p.m. Wednesday, a provincial government spokesman said.

Gold's performance has eclipsed that of gold mining stocks this year, but gold equities now are likely to take the upper hand as the flow of cheap US cash slows and miners boast juicy margins and good growth prospects. Gold's status as a quasi-currency and safe haven has helped pushed the price of the metal up about 20 per cent since the start of the year to above $US1,520 an ounce, making it one of the top performing asset classes of 2011.

Platinum, palladium to resume uptrend soon Commerzbank looks for Platinum to rise into year-end. These markets “tightened considerably” last year due to a rebound in demand following the recession-related weakness of the previous year. “The

Gold Fields’ attributable group production for the June quarter is expected to be around 872,000 gold equivalent oz, up 5% from 830,000 gold equivalent oz in Q1, the South African miner said Tuesday. During Q2, production from the country’s South Africa region was affected by six public holidays as well as two significant seismic-related accidents at the Kloof Driefontein Complex mine, which resulted in production stoppages due to safety interventions, the company said.

Brazil's Vale , the world's top iron ore miner, expects prices of the steelmaking raw material to remain above $150 a tonne for at least the next five years on tight global supplies, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. Guilherme Cavalcanti, Vale's chief financial officer, said miners would struggle to meet booming Asian demand, according to the newspaper.