Why leading investors are backing gold

With the price of uranium down about 25% from levels reached before the Japanese earthquake and nuclear disaster in Japan last year, the least the industry wanted to hear was what the latest edition of the Scotiabank Commodity Price Index had to say: the yellow material prices may well bottom in 2012.

Malaysian News Agency Bernama.com reports that a huge iron ore mine in Bolivia may be doomed as a result of conflicts between the proponent and the Bolivian government.

Denison Mines Corp shed 1.2% on Wednesday bringing its losses over the last week to 19% ahead of quarterly results that showed the company widened losses to $51.9 million.

Fearing a backlash by foreign investors in the mining sector – the foundation of the country's economy – Mongolian legislators on Tuesday watered down many of the provisions of draft legislation that gives the state greater control and ownership of mining projects.

A total of 242,000 tonnes of iron ore were traded on the first day of business on China’s first physical iron ore trading platform, China Beijing Mining Exchange (CBMX) said in a press release.

Uranium One said the effects of the Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown in Japan last March are now priced into the market for uranium oxide.

A private group of Chinese magnates is planning to take away Guinea’s Simandou, the world's largest undeveloped iron ore project, from Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto.

The new China Beijing Metals Exchange (CBMX), the country’s first physical iron ore trading platform is set to debut Tuesday, with the major producers of the commodity BHP Billiton (NYSE:RIO), Vale (NYSE:VALE), Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) as members.

Japan will find itself without nuclear power for the first time since 1970 as the last of its currently operating nuclear reactors prepares to go offline.