An $85 billion expansion of the iron ore industry in Australia will not depress the price of the crucial steelmaking ingredient because the major producers will simply curtail their outputs. Martin Place Securities head of research Greg Burns told AAP the current wave of Australia-wide expansions that could effectively double current capacity of 465Mt to one billion tonnes by December 2016 will not have an upward effect on prices because the major producers will simply pull back on production to tighten up supply. Nor will some of the planned projects get off the ground, he predicts. Sky News reports:

Huffington Post reports that iconic Canadian comedian, Dave Thomas, is opposed to the Keystone pipeline. Dave Thomas played Doug McKenzie on the hit comedy program SCTV. (Doug is pictured on the right.) The Keystone pipeline is a proposed $7 billion project that would connect Alberta with US Gulf Coast refineries.

After declaring a 730,000 tonne increase of contained copper in mineral resources at Kennecott Utah Copper, Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) expects to head underground. Rio Tinto says that the mineral resource, known as the North Rim Skarn, is a high-grade copper-gold skarn deposit located approximately 300 metres below the current Bingham Canyon pit, the world's deepest open pit mine. The company has committed US$165 million to complete the next stage of exploration and development studies by 2014.

Avanti Mining Inc. CA:AVT -2.86% (pinksheets:AVNMF) ("Avanti" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has received assays from the next 14 holes of its 2011 drill program at the Kitsault Mine molybdenum project located in northwest British Colombia.

The Mongolian government is discussing possible changes to a 2009 investment agreement for the massive Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold deposit, media reports quoted Mongolia's finance minister, S. Bayartsogt, as saying Tuesday. The 2009 deal gave a 66 percent stake in the multibillion-dollar Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia's South Gobi region to the Canadian miner Ivanhoe Mines (Toronto: IVN.TO - news) , in which mining giant Rio Tinto now owns a 48.5 percent stake. The government has the remaining 34 percent stake.

Perth Now reports: the first round of funds from the Australian Critical Skills Investment Fund of $200 million have been assigned to twelve WA projects in the critical industry sectors resources, construction, infrastructure and renewable energy.

Included in the 12 projects selected from WA are up-skilling senior tradespeople for frontline management jobs and specialist roles in mining and civil construction, training for workers in mining and quarrying and training for new and existing workers in rail operations to support resource projects. More than 2100 WA workers will be trained up under the Federal Government program.

Workers in Newfoundland and Labrador that do not have approved fall protection training will not be able to work with fall protection […]

Despite order books that are full and robust commodity prices, Rio Tinto says that customer sentiment is now more cautious and physical markets are softer than they were six months ago. Executives from Rio Tinto, one of the world's largest diversified miners, voiced their concerns at an investor seminar in London and New York on Tuesday. The company is finding that customers are concerned over the health of the OECD economies and persistent volatility in financial markets.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez followed through on a promise he made last month to ban the export of bullion under a broad scheme to nationalize the country's gold industry, The Wall Street Journal reports (sub required): Under guidelines published in the Official Gazette on Monday, the government said "all gold that is obtained through mining activity within national territory will be handed over to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela." The decree also gives companies 90 days to form joint ventures for gold mining, in which the government will hold a 55% stake.