Vancouver-based Crowflight Minerals (TSX: CML) says it will resume operations at its Bucko Lake Mine in April. The company expects to mine 220,000 tonnes of ore in 2011, with the goal of producing about five million pounds of nickel. With nickel trading at $12 a pound, the operation would yield a $20 million cash flow in 2011, Crowflight stated in a news release Wednesday.

BHP Billiton today announced approval for the Escondida Ore Access project (EOA), the first of a number of development options that will underline Escondida’s status as the world’s premier copper operation. The EOA project will relocate the crushing and conveying facilities currently located inside Escondida’s main pit to improve access to higher grade ore and thereby support higher production from 2013. The project is expected to cost US$554 million (US$319 million BHP Billiton share) and will be completed by mid calendar year 2012.

Sherwin Iron Limited (ASX: SHD) says that fresh metallurgical testwork on the oolitic hematite from its Roper River Iron Ore Project in […]

Barker Minerals Ltd. (TSX-V:BML) reported results from the 2,000m trenching program on its silver/gold/lead Black Bear project. The 100% owned project on China Mountain is located 74 km northeast of Williams Lake, in the Cariboo region of British Columbia.

Cole Latimer of Australian Mining reports that Minara Resources, Australia's second-largest nickel producer, is looking to increase the number of women on its mines to address the skills shortage.

Minara says about 30% of its current workforce are women.

The miner’s human resources manager Peter Bourne told the ABC that a number of campaigns are kicking off to encourage more women into mining.

“There's a lot of good work going on, I know the chamber of minerals and energy in Perth have promoted it through their women in mining celebrations recently," Bourne said.

Newmont Nusa Tenggara, a unit of U.S. gold miner Newmont Mining Corp , plans to launch an initial public offering in the second half of this year, said Martiono Hadianto, the firm's president director, on Tuesday.

Southern Copper, one of the world's largest producers of the metal, has postponed its $1 billion Tia Maria mining project in Peru because of social conflicts, Chief Executive Oscar Gonzalez said on Tuesday. The company (SCCO.N: Quote) will revise the project's viability later this month and consider alternative sites in Argentina and Ecuador in the meantime, Gonzalez told local television.

Copper is the most favoured base metal in BlackRock's $17 billion World Mining Trust, fund manager Evy Hambro said on Tuesday, with the demand and supply outlook keeping prices of the metal resiliently high. At just under 20 percent, copper is the single largest weighting on a pure commodity basis in the fund, Hambro told an Association of Investment Companies roundtable in London.

Ecuador expects companies including Canada's Kinross Gold to invest $7 billion in gold and copper projects in the next seven years, as the OPEC member tries to diversify its economy by encouraging mining. Natural Resources Minister Wilson Pastor said on Tuesday five projects will be signed in the next few months.