China's first precious metals spot exchange began trading Tuesday in Chengzhou in Hunan Province. The Hunan South Rare Precious Metals Exchange is based in China's silver capital in Yongxing County. Its first four products to be listed are silver, bismuth, indium and tellurium.

Alcoa officials and business leaders dismissed an assertion from GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney earlier this week that a federal labor board’s actions could threaten jobs at the Alcoa plant in Iowa. “No, we don’t see that happening,” Alcoa spokesman Michael Belwood told The Des Moines Register just before President Barack Obama’s visit to Bettendorf Tuesday. Photo of Mitt Romney 2008 campaign rally is from Wikipedia.

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Sundance Resources has shortlisted potential partners for its $4.6 billion iron ore project in West Africa, it said on Wednesday, sending its shares up as much as 6 percent.

Australia's mining iAustralia's mining industry -- the main driver of the booming economy -- is 83 percent foreign-owned, according to a study released by the country's Greens party Wednesday. The report, conducted by a private consultant commissioned by the Greens, said that in the next five years Aus$50 billion (US$53 billion) in profits from Australian mining operations would go offshore.ndustry -- the main driver of the booming economy -- is 83 percent foreign-owned, according to a study released by the country's Greens party Wednesday. The report, conducted by a private consultant commissioned by the Greens, said

Moderately lower base metals, molybdenum, uranium and silver prices more than offset stronger gold, potash and cobalt prices in May, lowering the Scotiabank Commodity Price Index by 2.3% last month. LME copper prices eased from US$4.30 per pound in April to $4.05 per pound in May "and are still exceptionally lucrative at US$4.08 in late June," noted Scotiabank economist Patricia Mohr.

The value of Canada's oilsands grew by 2,220% to $441bn from $19bn between 1990 and 2009, according to a Statistics Canada study released on Tuesday. That put the value of crude bitumen from the oilsands higher than the value of coal, crude oil and natural gas combined. In 1990, oil sands reserves under active development amounted to around 500m cubic metres; by 2008, they had increased eight-fold to 4,300m cubic metres, thanks to improvements in extraction technology, new discoveries and an increase in the global demand for crude oil.

Rising gold prices are helping to bring mines on-stream in Northern Ontario, though this profitability is still at least partially dependent on many other fundamental factors such as infrastructure, solid mineralization, community involvement and favourable environmental impact assessments.

Cornerstone Capital Resources of Mount Pearl, NL, and joint venture partner Thundermin Resources of Toronto are pleased with the increased resource estimate for their Little Deer copper project 10 km north of Springdale.

Moly Mines Limited (TSX:MOL)(ASX:MOL) said today it has signed various project debt agreements with China Development Bank Corporation (CDB) totaling US$494 million for the construction of the Spinifex Ridge Molybdenum / Copper mine (Spinifex Ridge), Australia. Image by Moly Mines Limited