BuaNews: Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources Godfrey Oliphant is urging the South African Mining Qualifications Authority (MQA) to continue building skills programs to benefit the mining sector, currently suffering from a skills shortage.

Oliphant, who was addressing the Annual Consultative Conference on Friday, commended the MQA for focusing on grassroots activities like Adult Basic Education and Training, career development initiatives, bursaries, workplace coaching programme and development of black managers in the mining sector. "I am encouraged by the research that is currently being done focusing on workplace skills plans and annual training reports. I encourage employers in the sector to work with labour actively to undertake and build on this crucial area of skills development," he said.

Bellona reports: the Kola Mining and Metallurgical Company (GMK), a division of the smelting giant Norilsk Nickel, and international environmental NGO Bellona discussed environmental problems today in a seminar regarding Norilsk Nickel's metal works on the Kola Peninsula.

The seminar’s name reflects its goal: “Interaction between governmental structures, business, academia and civil society – an instrument for improving environmental safety in the region.”

As a part of BC's job plan, a new training program to address a skills shortage in forestry and mining was announced today, reports Energetic City.

Over the next 18 months, $2.9 billion will be provided for the program. The pilot is intended to offer training in key areas such as language and literacy training, technology upgrades, numeracy and document use. Training will be provided through local service providers through USW (the United Steelworkers Unions).

The Ottawa Citizen reports that computer hackers went after potash documents in the Finance Department and Treasury Board networks. An email, pretending to come from an aboriginal group, was opened by department officials. A link in the email installed malware on the worker's computers, which facilitated the attacks. Industry officials believe the attack was launched from China.

Albertan metallurgical coal producer, Grande Cache Coal (TSX:GCE), was acquired by a Japanese and Chinese firms for about $1.0 billion. The purchase, announced on Monday, represented a 112% premium over the 20-day volume weighted average trading price of the company's common shares. Shares of Grande Cache Coal shot up 66% on the news. The new owners are Winsway Coking Coal Holdings Limited and Marubeni Corporation.

Australian uranium producer, Paladin Energy, announced that its U3O8 production was 15% lower due to planned shutdowns and unscheduled remediation work. The company's stock declined 4.15% to $1.50 after Paladin announced on Monday its quarterly report for the three-month period ended September 30, 2011 The company did have record sales of 2,001,673lb U3O8, which generated revenue of US$102.74M. The average sales price for U3O8 was US$51.33/lb.

This University of Leicester picture shows Nyree Hill, PhD Research in the Department of Geology. University of Leicester geologists are applying new scientific prospecting methods. Scotgold Resources has just won planning permission to open Scotland's first gold mine since gold was mined 500 years ago at Leadhills to make the Scottish crown jewels. Now the University of Leicester is involved in the search for the next natural treasure trove. Over the next decade or so, it is planned that the Cononish deposit near Tyndrum in the Scottish Highlands, will produce 20,000 oz gold and 80,000 oz silver each year. After that, though, the currently known resources will largely be worked out. Therefore research being undertaken at the University of Leicester, in conjunction with Scotgold Resources and in collaboration with researchers at Aberdeen & Glasgow Universities and the British Geological Survey, will be key to finding the next gold mine. If successful, employment and the local economy - and income for the UK - can be sustained beyond the lifetime of Cononish. University of Leicester PhD student, Nyree Hill, explained: "The problem is that gold is found scattered throughout the Scottish Highlands, but so far none has been found as concentrated as at Cononish. This is despite the Highlands being one of the first areas in the world to be studied by geologists. One explanation for this is the challenging climate and mountainous terrain, and also much of the rock is buried by glacial deposits." The gold at Cononish has ancient roots. Before the Atlantic Ocean opened, the Highlands formed part of a mountain belt that extended from Canada through Ireland and Scotland into Scandinavia. This mountain-belt formed as the Iapetus Ocean, a fore-runner of the Atlantic Ocean, was destroyed by the collision of tectonic plates half a billion years ago. This joined Scotland and England together as we know it today. The gold was concentrated, deep underground, as rising granite magma heated water, which circulated through large faults. That hot water, at 100s of degrees Celsius, carried gold, silver and other metals, and deposited them, with quartz, into veins. The process, repeated time and again, brought the gold to economic levels. Hill is examining rocks from a series of new targets close to Cononish in order to identify key ‘fingerprints' for gold mineralisation. She said: "Traditional exploration strategies look at how gold is related to other metals and minerals. However, my study is using detailed chemistry of the gold and associated minerals to map the pathways through the rock along which the gold-bearing fluid flowed." "Applying this approach will help identify future targets and maximise our chances of finding the next Cononish." Dr Gawen Jenkin, Senior Lecturer in Applied Geology at the University of Leicester, said: "The go-ahead for mining at Cononish will galvanise exploration activity across the Scottish Highlands - a mini gold-rush perhaps - meaning that Nyree's work will be of wide application. I was involved in the early work to understand how Cononish formed and was therefore very keen when asked by Scotgold to be involved with their current exploration program."

The UK's Telegraph reports two hundred wealthy Democrats were paying $5,000 a head this week to have lunch with Barack Obama – up to $7,500 if they also wanted their pictures taken with him – at San Francisco's posh W Hotel. Outside it was very different – some of the party's biggest donors were protesting. There is increasing bitterness on the left about Obama's perceived closeness to industry and what they see as his failure to honour environmental promises. Like the San Francisco protesters many former campaign donors are now threatening to withdraw financial support if he fails to block the Keystone XL oil pipeline and putting off the decision – hinted at by the US State Department this week – should not come as a surprise to anyone following Obama's poll numbers..

Arabian American Development Co, announced over the weekend it has completed construction of the gold, silver and copper mine in Saudi-Arabia which it is developing with Saudi's Al-Kobra Mining Company (Amak). The Texas-based company, which owns 37% of Amak, said it will turn the facility over to the Chinese surface operator to begin operations end-November. In July Arabian American Development got a $37m injection from a fund controlled by the League of Arab States. Shareholders in the Nasdaq-listed company saw the value of their investment rise a cool $107m as a result of the transaction and over the last month stock in the 44-year old company has risen 28.5%. The mine in a Yemen border province is the only non-government mine in the Saudi kingdom and is scheduled to begin production early next year.