Joy Global Inc. had a successful second quarter. The mining equipment manufacturer reported net income of $162 million for the second quarter of 2011, or $1.52 per share, compared to $120 million, or $1.15 per share, for the same period last year. Second quarter bookings were up 46% to $1.5 billion, while net sales jumped 19%. "We had another outstanding quarter, reaching record levels of performance in order bookings, shipments, operating profit margins and earnings per share,” said Mike Sutherlin, President and Chief Executive Officer. Sutherlin pointed to Joy Global's recent $1 billion acquisition of LeTourneau Technologies as an important complement to its rope shovel capability, by expanding into the wheel loader and drilling products markets. Image by Joy Global Inc.

Traditional Aboriginal owners in the Pilbara stand to receive more than $2 billion over 40 years under a watershed agreement with Rio Tinto that sets a new standard for negotiations between miners and indigenous Australia. Seven years in the making, the land-use agreement with five Aboriginal groups will allow about 40 new iron ore mines to proceed in an area of 70,000sqkm

Gold slid more than 1 percent on Thursday to post its biggest one-day decline in a month as the yellow metal was sold along with other commodities. "With the discussions in the market about lower commodity prices if China's slowing. And we've also had an outright decline in crude oil as well as base metals. I think that has sapped some of the vigor from the bullion market," said HSBC metals analyst James Steel in New York.

Canada's Sabina Gold & Silver Corp said on Thursday it would sell its Hackett River property and certain claims on the Wishbone Greenstone Belt in Nunavut, Canada to Xstrata Zinc Canada for C$50m in cash and a silver production royalty, lifting its shares almost 5% in early Toronto trade. In addition Xstrata has agreed to incur not less than $50m on exploration and other expenditures on the properties over a four year period. The transaction could take up to six months to complete and will position Sabina as purely a precious metal player.

Merrex Gold announced on Thursday a private placement worth $1.75m with Iamgold, its earn-in partner on the Siribaya Gold Project in Mali, which is potentially a 5m ounce deposit. Merrex's agreement with Iamgold will see the company take a 50% stake in Siribaya with Iamgold spending $10.5m on exploration over four years. In a note to investors Merrex said that spending on the 800 square km Mali project which kicked off in 2005, is being accelerated.

Seymour Ventures' wholly owned subsidiary Rare Earth Industries Ltd. (REI) is pleased to announce that it has commenced the exploration work program on the Mt. Bisson and Xeno rare earth properties, located in the Omineca Mining Division, approximately 50 kilometers NW of Mackenzie in central BC. REI has the right to earn a 60% interest in the properties from Paget Minerals by spending $1,050,000 over three years to develop the property, including $350,000 in 2011. The initial discovery of rare earth element mineralization on the Mount Bisson property was made by Halleran in 1986 with total rare earth element (TREE) contents as high as 13.5 wt.% in grab samples from the Laura occurrence.

United Uranium and Star Uranium announced that they have completed a ground magnetic survey on their Fort a la Corne diamond properties. The Claims are situated immediately adjacent to the eastern border of the Shore Gold Inc. Fort a la Corne project. The survey was completed by Apex Geoscience of Edmonton, Alberta, and included an analysis of the jointly held Fort a la Corne diamond properties in Saskatchewan.

Rusal has announced a scholarship program that will provide 100 young Guineans places in Russian universities, for the purpose of studying mining, railroad operations, economics, building and construction, agriculture, water supply, medicine and human resources.

The “RUSAL Scholarship-2011” program aims to educate highly-qualified staff for the Republic of Guinea and to strengthen the ties of friendship between the Russian Federation and Guinea. After graduation, there is the opportunity for many of the students to work for RUSAL in their subsidiaries in Guinea.

Rio Tinto and Chinalco will be positioning their drills in Mainland China, the two companies announced today, in a new exploration joint venture to operate under the name Chinalco Rio Tinto Exploration Co. Ltd. (CRTX). According to a press release issued by Rio Tinto, the primary focus of CRTX will be copper exploration, with coal and potash to be considered later.