Chile's Collahuasi, the world's No. 3 copper mine, said on Friday it had lifted a force majeure on copper concentrate exports imposed after an accident at its key sea terminal in December.

Brazil's government is considering creating an iron ore export tax meant to spur investment in local steel production, a leading Brazilian newspaper reported on Friday. Advisors to President Dilma Rousseff have asked the finance ministry to study a measure that would tax iron ore exports and exempt steel exports, the newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo reported on Friday, citing a source in the presidential palace.

Speculators in gold and copper futures and options raised their net long positions in the week ended March 29, while they trimmed bullish bets in the silver market, according to the latest report by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

China has increased its 2011 rare earth export quota, says an article by International Business Times: China has set its total output of rare earth at 93,800 tonnes this year, 4,600 tonnes more or 5.16 percent higher compared to last year's, the Ministry of Land and Resources said this week.

Denver-based Midway Gold is eyeing an additional underground resource at its Midway project in Nye County, Nevada. The company said on Friday that an NI 43101- compliant technical report updates a 2005 resource estimate that envisioned an open-pit mine. That estimate, prepared by Mine Development Associates, calculated an inferred low-grade resource of 5.5 million short tons containing 215,500 ounces of gold, with an average grade of 0.039 oz/ton.

Shareholders of New York-based Capital Gold (TSX:CGC) have approved a merger with TSX-listed Gammon Gold, BIV Business Today is reporting. The approval takes Timmins Gold Corp. out of the picture as a potential buyer of Capital Gold:

SRK Consulting partner and principal mining geotechnical engineer William Joughin tells Mining Weekly that deep-level mining in South Africa is suffering from a severe shortage of qualified rock engineers.

The ever-increasing demand for commodities is resulting in the growth of mining operations, Joughin notes.
“This significant growth is creating the demand for qualified rock engineers, which has yet to be met,” he says.
He adds that, locally, the shortage is exacerbated by rock engineers leaving South Africa to pursue other attractive opportunities in Australia and Canada.

South Africa's freight logistics group Transnet [TRAN.UL] said on Thursday that it had closed two lines linking coal mines with the Richards Bay export terminal after a derailment.

Xstrata and Chugoku Electric have settled an annual coal contract for the Japanese fiscal year starting April 1 at a record level of around $130 per tonne, over 30 percent higher than last year's contract, sources told Reuters on Friday.