Western Australia junior gets ‘conerstone’ funding from Chinese battery manufacturer

Australian Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, called local mining companies to look at Latin America as a business destination, as the region was emerging as an important economic powerhouse, hungry for Australian investment.

The copper-uranium-gold-silver project has a 100 year mining life, so a glitch this year was unlikely to sway a company that thinks well ahead, the CEO of the Olympic Dam Taskforce said Tuesday.

Australian Stawell Gold Mines will be closed within two years, despite Canadian company Crocodile Gold spending more than $100 million buying it.

Australian company Crusader Resources Ltd. will invest $400 million in a gold mining project located in the Currais Novos region in Brazil’s north-eastern state of Rio Grande do Norte. The project is expected to be one of the biggest gold mines in the country.

BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) surprised the market this morning with good news by announcing it will restart its TEMCO manganese operations in Tasmania by the end of August.

London-based diversified miner Rio Tinto (LON & NYSE:RIO) is donating the biggest pink rough diamond ever discovered, found earlier this year at its Argyle mine, to an Australian museum in Melbourne, reports The West.

The state government has scrapped plans for a $8.8 billion coal terminal expansion project at Queensland's Abbot Point, Australia citing funding issues and environmental regulations, but China's slowing economy probably had more than a little to do with it.

Gina Rinehart, the world of mining's 4th richest person, is meeting a fellow billionaire Stan Perron in the Australian supreme court this week in a fight over – no surprises here – iron ore royalties.

Iron ore prices fell on Monday to six-month lows of $130/tonne as Chinese steelmakers demand cargo deferrals or simply default on shipments.