MINING.COM

Skills crunch looms in Canada’s mining industry

The mining industry in Canada is now facing a shortage of skilled labour, and the severity could be as severe as in was before the economic downturn in 2008, Mining Weekly reports.

Record prices for many commodities, coupled with cheap and more easily available finance, mean that activity in the mining sector is roaring and skilled mining engineers, geologists, technicians and other key people are again hot commodities and companies are having to pay up to get hold of them.

Joanna Gaskell - Education Editor | June 21, 2011 | 5:36 pm

Resource nationalism, a company survival guide

When most people think of resource nationalism they tend to think of a country, usually in an unstable part of the world, deciding it wants a bigger role in its resources sector and taking it. That is however, an outdated view. That is not to say that outright expropriation doesn't happen but, far more interesting is the type of resource nationalism that has sprung up not just in Africa and South America recently, but in places such as Australia, Nevada and Canada.

Mineweb | June 21, 2011 | 5:07 pm

China: huge increase in gold and silver coin minting to meet demand

According to a report by Chinese news agency Xinhua, China has been sharply increasing its output of gold and silver coins to meet seemingly ever-increasing popular demand for precious metals as people buy to protect against perceived rising inflation. Indeed it has more than doubled the maximum issuance for 2011 for some popular gold coin sizes from its previously announced levels.

Mineweb | June 21, 2011 | 6:40 am

China ‘Panda’ing to ever increasing public gold and silver demand

As yet another confirmation of the ever growing public investment demand for precious metals in China, the Peoples Bank of China has announced it is very substantially increasing its issuance of gold and silver coins this year.

Mineweb | June 20, 2011 | 3:22 pm

As the Greek crisis awaits a final decision from European financial officials, gold remains well supported

A little more than a year ago, Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, told the world that Greece did not have any financial problems. Soon after that, it transpired that the country was so short of cash, they urgently required financial assistance. A year later the situation in Greece is worse than what it was a year ago, and now Papandreou is fighting for his political career.

David Levenstein | June 20, 2011 | 2:26 pm

Allana Potash Announces New NI 43-101 Compliant Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources of 673 Million Tonnes and an Increase in Inferred Mineral Resources to 596 Million Tonnes

Allana Potash announced that it has received an updated National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") compliant Mineral Resource Estimate from ERCOSPLAN Ingenieurgesellschaft Geotechnik und Bergau ("ERCOSPLAN") on its Danakhil Potash Project in Ethiopia. The updated mineral resource estimate includes all four potash bearing beds (sylvinite, upper and lower carnallite and kainitite) in the project and is comprised of Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources totaling 673 Million tonnes with an average grade 18.65% KCl (composite of all four potash beds) and Inferred Mineral Resources totaling 596 Million tonnes with an average grade of 19.96% KCl (composite of all four potash beds).

Marketwire | June 20, 2011 | 2:08 pm

Top investment bank limits hiring as pay for star metals traders reach $3 million a year

UBS AG, Switzerland’s largest bank, is slowing down its commodities hiring expansion after a decade-long bull market drove up pay and created a scarcity of talent. UBS originally wanted to double its commodities staff. Salaries and bonuses for the most-profitable metals traders rose 20% to $2 million to $3 million last year, according to Commodity Search Partners. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI index of 24 raw materials rose fourfold since the end of 2001 and the surge drove commodity investments to a record $451bn in April this year, about 50% more than a year earlier. A report by researcher Coalition showed a group of 10 large banks increase their commodities revenues by 55% in the first quarter.

MINING.COM Staff Writer | June 20, 2011 | 1:49 am

The king of really big diamonds heads to China

The New York Times profiles Laurence Graff, whom the paper calls perhaps the biggest dealer in seriously big stones. In 2008, Graff Diamonds turned a pretax profit of $77 million on sales of $538 million, according to its chief financial officer, Nick Paine. In 2009, sales dropped to $432 million, and pretax profits to $62 million. Last year, sales were virtually flat, but pretax profits jumped to $86 million, mostly because of sales of smaller pieces with higher mark-ups. Which raises the question of how large his inventory of large stones has become.

Frik Els | June 19, 2011 | 7:39 pm

More expensive lightbulbs, plasma TVs coming as China action doubles rare earth prices in two weeks

Prices of the certain rare earths used in energy saving lightbulbs, lasers, nuclear reactors, magnets and plasma televisions more than doubled in the past two weeks as China, responsible for upwards of 95% of world supply, further tightens control of mining, trading and exports, research house Industrial Minerals said over the weekend. China in recent months closed or consolidated more than 35 rare earth mines and cut export quotas sparking concerns in the US and other industrial nations about access to supplies and causing an exploration and mine development frenzy with over 250 projects on the go worldwide.

Frik Els | June 18, 2011 | 11:55 pm

Three dead, seven rescued in Goa mining accident

The Hindustan Times reports three people were feared killed while seven others were rescued in a major mining accident in Goa's Sanvordem town, officials said on Saturday. The 10 people got trapped under debris when an unstable tailing stack -- a huge heap of aluminium and silica impurities extracted along with iron ore - gave way due to heavy monsoon showers.

MINING.com Editor | June 18, 2011 | 7:47 pm