After the market close on Monday Richmont Mines announced the resignation of Martin Rivard, its president and CEO. Under Rivard's guidance the company's stock has been on a tear, jumping more than 117% in just the last year.

In a move that should go a long away to relieve the oil glut in the US Midwest – the pricing point for US crude – TransCanada said on Monday it is going ahead with construction of the $2.3 billion southern leg of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Cushing Oklahoma to the US Gulf Coast.

Baja Mining, locked in a bitter dispute with Mount Kellett Capital Management over control of its board, on Monday accused the asset manager of being "reckless," having a "hidden agenda" and "misleading" shareholders.

The mining industry will be following closely the outcomes of this week’s International Space Station members’ meeting in Quebec city, Canada, as the heads of the world's five biggest space agencies will be discussing, among others, the possibility of exploring for minerals on the moon.

London’s AIM-listed Bellzone Mining announced this morning that its Forécariah joint venture project in Guinea has received approval to complete the first blast at Yomboyeli, allowing Bellzone to kick off iron-ore production by the end of the first quarter this year.

Canadian Junior miner Aquila Resources Inc. (TSX:AQA) announced this morning it has acquired the Five Mile Lake zinc project near Ely, Minnesota.

An $800K underground mining simulator has been installed in Juneau in the University of Alaska Southeast - now the only school with an simulator of this kind in the United States, reports Juneau Empire.

The mining center had to look to South Africa for the technology as no outfit in the U.S. builds mining simulation of this sophistication. South African technicians traveled to Juneau to help shake out the bugs and train UAS mining instructors on the technology. The simulator, named Cybermine, was created by ThoroughTec Simulation based in South Africa. It will be used to prepare entry-level miners for hard rock mining jobs and to provide opportunity for seasoned miners to hone their skills.

Associated Press reports that two military planes laden with 17 tons of silver and gold coins recovered from a sunken Spanish galleon have touched down in Madrid.

Molycorp, the company in the process of expanding and modernizing a mine and processing plant closed down in 2002, this week announced the sequential start-up of its Project Phoenix rare earth manufacturing facility.