The introduction of improvement to the Sena railroad would cost over US$200 million and take at least 18 months, the chairman of Mozambican port and rail company, Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique, said Tuesday in Maputo. Brazilian mining group Vale and Australia’s Riversdale Mining have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in coal mining projects in Tete province and plan to use the Sena railroad to transport the coal to the port of Beira.

South Africa's role in getting Zimbabwe's diamonds back into international trade is being slammed as "dangerous", amid revelations that government officials there have helped export millions of dollars worth of Zim diamonds. South Africa's State Diamond Trader officials admitted in parliament last week that they had helped Zimbabwe export diamonds from Chiadzwa, despite an international ban on the trade.

Unrest and strikes in Indonesia, Chile, Australia and Africa, a shortage of skilled workers in North America and rising labour costs all over the globe are quickly becoming the most serious downsides of a mining boom that started almost a decade ago. While a historically high overall jobless rate is masking spiking wages in the resources sector in the US, workers in emerging markets are shutting down operations of mining companies deemed not to be sharing record profits fairly.

The destruction of Mongolia's grasslands to access a wealth of mineral riches has sparked an anti-mining movement led by a nomadic herder who says force can be used to bring polluting firms to heel. Tsetsegee Munkhbayar is the head of Fire Nation, a small group on a crusade to put an end to what they say are irresponsible mining operations in the resource-rich landlocked country that are threatening their livelihoods.

De Beers Diamond Jewellers, the ultimate destination for diamond jewellery, is delighted to announce the opening of its new store in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The De Beers store is located on Bogenbai Batyr, 125 in Almaty – the premier shopping location for luxury brands. The Almaty store will be operated by Premier Metro Group, whose core business is the retail and distribution of luxury goods including jewellery, watches, cars, high-end mobile phones as well as fine wines.

Copper-zinc miner HudBay Minerals said Wednesday it has acquired the roughly 2.5m shares in Norsemont Mining it did not already own, giving it 100% ownership. The acquisition is set to increase HudBay's copper output by about 145% when Norsemont's Constancia mine in Peru comes into full production. The news comes a day after the company announced it will spend $144m to build a new concentrator at its Lalor project in Manitoba, Canada.

Truck manufacturer and distributor Powerstar reports that the company has started tapping into the South African construction and mining markets with its low-cost durable trucks. Powerstar executive officer Frans Cloete says that many construction and mining operations in South Africa and in neighbouring countries are situated in remote and isolated areas where maintenance and manoeuvrability of trucks, as well as poor road infrastructure, are pressing issues.

Powerscreen, one of the world’s leading providers of mobile crushing and screening equipment, has launched the new Powerscreen® 1500 Maxtrak, the largest addition to the highly successful Powerscreen® Maxtrak range which includes the 1000, 1000SR and 1300 models.

Australia-based iron ore development company African Iron Limited (ASX: AKI) is pleased to announce a greater than 80% increase to the aggregate exploration target size at its 80%-owned Mayoko Iron Ore Project, located in the Republic of Congo, West Africa. Image of a drilling rig at the Mayoko Iron Ore Project, by African Iron Limited.