For Environment Minister Peter Kent, it only gets harder from here. The minister spent his first hours on the job in the new cabinet receiving an international award for Ottawa’s conservation efforts. Now, he has to take on the oilsands. National parks are the shiny, bright side of Canada’s environmental policy, long recognized for preserving and protecting fragile lands and waters, and reintroducing endangered species. But Kent is also tasked with cutting Canada’s greenhouse-gas emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020 — with one hand tied behind his back.

Global Earth Energy and its Texas-based joint venture partner Modern Coal announced on Thursday the offer by Pacific Coast Plaza Inc. to purchase 100,000 metric tons of coal per month for a period of 36 months. The price of coal is approximately $85 per metric ton valuing the deal at over $300 million. The current plan is to have the coal loaded on barges from a suitable port yet to be determined.

The ITRI reports that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government has withdrawn its troops from the Bisie mine, which has until recently been the largest tin mining operation in the country. The Wall Street Journal reported that military units have been withdrawing from the mine over the past six weeks to allow the North Kivu provincial mining department to assume control of the mine.

Anaconda Mining Inc. ("Anaconda") - (TSX: ANX) is pleased to announce that, on May 4, 2011, it shipped a record amount of gold, 344.2 troy ounces, in a single pour at its Pine Cove gold mine ("Pine Cove"). The production was during an approximately 7-day period from April 25ththrough May 1st. In addition, overall recovery rates at the Pine Cove mill continue to improve. In the press release dated May 2, 2011, Anaconda reported that overall recovery had reached the low to mid 70% range. During the period from May 1st through May 15th, overall mill recovery was approximately 80%.

Azimut Exploration Inc. ("Azimut") (TSXV: AZM) reports excellent results from its 100%-owned Eastmain West property located in the James Bay region,Quebec. Chromium grades up to 39% Cr2O3 and platinum group element (PGE) values up to 1.9 g/t PGE have been obtained within a 4-km-long ultramafic intrusion on the property. These new data further confirm the strong chromium-PGE exploration potential of the project.

Bloomberg reports on Thursday that GVK Power & Infrastructure, a builder of airports and utilities controlled by Indian billionaire GV Krishna Reddy, is in talks to borrow as much as $850m to fund the purchase of two Hancock Prospecting coal mines according to people with knowledge of the negotiations. GVK will use the money to pay Hancock $500m for equity in the mines and another $350m as compensation for costs incurred by the Australian company for running them.

Mitchell Adam, President and CEO of Vancouver-based Pan Terra Industries announced on Thursday it has entered into a deal to acquire 80% of Namibia’s Congo Namibia Trading, a private gold and copper exploration company. Under Thursday's letter of intent, TSX-Venture listed Pan Terra will pay C$300,000 in cash and issue 3m shares as well as 3m share purchase warrants priced at C$0.73. Congo Namibia Trading holds 100% interest in five exclusive prospecting licenses in the Tsumeb Copper Belt in Namibia as well the rights to acquire 51% stake in an Angolan and a Zimbabwean gold joint venture.

Reforms by Guinea's first freely elected government are needed to clean up a mining sector in disarray after decades of political turmoil, but they risk scaring off investors if they go too far too fast. The world's top bauxite supplier and a new frontier for iron ore, Guinea is rewriting its mining code, probing joint venture deals, and has dealt tough blows to major firms since the election of President Alpha Conde last November.

During 2010, London- and Johannesburg-listed Central Rand Gold (CRG) produced 9,321 ounces of gold. This is the company that categorically stated in its 2007 annual report that it is "intended that CRG will begin gold production in early 2009 at an annualized rate of 100,000 ounces. This production rate is forecast to increase to around one million ounces a year by 2012."