CanadaViews reports Saskatchewan NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter announced Thursday an NDP government would create the Bright Futures Fund, modelled on oil and gas revenue funds in Alaska and Norway. The fund will dedicate a portion of Saskatchewans non-renewable resource royalties to invest for the future. This fund would be independently managed, and the government would not be allowed to withdraw money to cover short-term deficits and day-to-day spending. Lingenfelter said that the Sask Party has seen over $10 billion dollars in non-renewable resource revenue flow through their hands and spent on one-time projects or to cover budget deficits.

Alberta Oil Magazine takes an in-depth look at infrastructure challenges that persist for Fort McMurray, the centre of Canada's oil sands industry, in the middle of a global bonanza.

Claymore Silver Bullion Trust has filed a final short form prospectus in connection with a follow-on offering of hedged trust units, Toronto-based Claymore Investments, Inc. said Wednesday. The hedged units will provide investors with an exposure to physical silver bullion with substantially all of the U.S. dollar currency exposure hedged back to the Canadian dollar. The maximum amount of the offering is $75,000,600 million, or 2,907,000 hedged units, priced at $25.80 per unit.

Crossland Uranium Mines (ASX:CUX) plans to issue a report next month on an illuvial heavy mineral rare earth element resource at its 50% owned Charley Creek project in Northern Territory. A 16.7 tonne quantity of alluvial material has been obtained from the Cockroach prospect for testwork to investigate a heavy mineral process flowsheet and to generate samples of heavy mineral product for initial marketing and additional process development tests. Crossland says that the Charley Creek alluvials should be low cost sources of heavy mineral concentrates with high concentrations of REE and/or zircon.

Glencore International plc (LON:GLEN), seeking access to the growing coal market in India and China, announced on Thursday an estimated $1 billion plan to acquire Optimum Coal Holdings (JNB:OPT), a significant thermal coal producer in South Africa. Glencore will value the ordinary shares of Optimum at 34 ZAR (4.8 USD), a 35% premium over the 30-day volume weighted average. “Optimum’s high quality, long life coal assets and significant presence at Richards Bay Coal Terminal would be an attractive addition to our existing South African coal business," said Tor Peterson, director of the Coal/Coke commodity department.

Cameco (NYSE:CCJ) announced on Wednesday that it signed signed a memorandum of agreement with its partner, Kazatomprom, to increase annual uranium production at the Joint Venture Inkai Limited Liability Partnership (JVI) from 3.9 million pounds to 5.2 million pounds. The Inkai in-situ recovery uranium mine and processing plant is located in central Kazakhstan and is operated by JVI, 60% owned by Cameco and 40% owned by Kazatomprom, the Kazakhstan government owned national atomic company. Under the memorandum of agreement, Cameco's share of Inkai's annual production will be 2.9 million pounds with the processing plant at full capacity.

Charter rates for the route surged 12 percent to the highest level in almost 10 months as Rio paid $10.30 for each metric ton of ore hauled on a capesize, a booking list published by the Baltic Exchange showed. The Baltic Dry Index, a broader measure of commodity shipping costs, advanced 3.9 percent to 1,682, the highest level since Jan. 4.

The Thebarton Senior College in Torrensville, South Australia, opened last month, and aims to kick-start careers in mining, metal, engineering and construction, the Portside Messenger reports.

Principal Kim Hebenstreit said pupils were learning welding and metal fabrication techniques. “(Students) will get the opportunity to become familiar with what they will see when they move into the workforce and have the confidence and the skills to apply for jobs in high-tech manufacturing industries,” Mr Hebenstreit said.

Australian Mining reports that Jay Weatherill, the next premier of South Australia, has unveiled a new strategy to up-skill workers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to fill jobs in the mining and defence industries.

According to Weatherill, there is a continuing rise in demand for people with STEM skills in the mining and defence industries. The SA government has mapped all the STEM work being done in South Australia by government, industry and the community sector so that more than 55 programs can be harnessed to deliver the greatest possible benefit for the economy.