The rebranding of former fiery leftist Ollanta Humala apparently struck a chord with Peruvian voters as exit polls Sunday showed the former army commander is leading the race to become Peru's next president. The 48-year-old Humala declared victory late Sunday night in an apparently razor-thin win. He would succeed President Alan Garcia on July 28. Image from Agência Brasil under Creative Commons license.

A Russian Finance Ministry official has reportedly said that the State repository has sufficient palladium stocks to continue to export in 2012, while it is also looking to upgrade some of its existing material (Gokhran has sufficient palladium to continue exports in 2012 - report). In their authoritative reviews released last month, both Johnson Matthey and GFMS addressed this issue and the two houses are of similar views with respect to the outlook on this issue.

India, the world's largest diamond processing market, is in a bind. The country that imported close to $7.5 billion in rough diamonds last year has not been able to shake off the embargo on the import of diamonds from Zimbabwe. Traders maintain that this has left the door wide open for more imports into China. In a bid to crackdown on reports that conflict or blood diamonds are being smuggled into India and laundered there, the Indian government had earlier blocked the import of roughs from Zimbabwe.

Martin Engineering and Stahura Conveyor Products (SCP) co-hosted a seminar on conveyor safety to raise safety education and standardize maintenance practices to reduce the risk of injury to individuals working around conveyors. The event featured key speakers from prominent coal industry media, along with engineering experts and top executives, who highlighted the significant progress made in reducing injuries, while introducing new ways to take conveyor safety to the next level. "We are trying to change the way the industry thinks about conveyors," observed Martin Engineering chief technology director and CEMA director, Todd Swinderman. "The equipment has become much more robust and reliable, but basic designs haven’t changed that much."

Diamonds North Resources acquired 100% interest in the Esker gold property in Nunavut. The Esker claim covers several kilometres of gold bearing stratigraphy. Drill intercepts of gold mineralization are as high as 8.2 g/T gold over 13 metres, including 17.7 g/T gold over 5.7 metres; and, 2.4 g/T gold over 71 metres which includes several high grade zones (see table below). For a video presentation on this project visit our website www.diamondsnorth.com. "This low cost staking puts us into a project with wide zones of high grade gold mineralization and significant tonnage potential. As only a small portion of the zone has been tested, our objective is to drill along strike of the known mineralization along the host gabbro units to expand the gold-bearing mineralized zone," says Mark Kolebaba President and CEO of Diamonds North.

One of 2010’s glamour floats in Australia, Middle Island Resources Ltd (ASX: MDI) has decided to join some global majors, including BHP […]

MarketWatch reports Rio Tinto PLC has halted export operations at one of the terminals at its Dampier iron ore port in Western Australia after a contract worker was killed when scaffolding he was working on fell into the water. An investigation by the police and Mines Department has been launched into the circumstances surrounding the accident, the Anglo-Australian company said in a statement Sunday. Rio Tinto hasn't had a fatality at its operations in the Pilbara, a region in Western Australia state that accounts for roughly 40% of the world's seaborne supplies of iron ore, since August 2003.

A new local documentary to be screened in cinemas next week and engineered to make a case for the nationalisation of the mining industry called Mining for Change: A Story of South African Mining, presents studio footage of ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, likening mining company owners to car thieves.

The Australian reports Fortescue Metals' Chinese shareholder Hunan Valin Steel plans to triple its capacity through mergers and capital investment and is eyeing a listing on the Hong Kong stockmarket to raise up to $1.68bn. The Chinese government last month began another push to consolidate the country's fractured steel industry and is planning to create six or seven mega-groups with the aim of boosting its negotiating power with iron ore giants including miners Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. Hunan Valin is considered second-tier at the moment but wants to push production to over 30m tonnes/year, similar to industry behemoth Baosteel.