BHP secures iron mining rights in Australia’s Pilbara for another century

A Port Hedland pub has banned patrons from wearing work uniforms due to rising tensions between the workers of rival Pilbara mining companies.

AuRico Gold pulled the trigger on its Australian operations on Tuesday, selling the Stawell and Fosterville mines to Crocodile Gold Corp for up to $105 million.

Why? For mining the stuff for making China.

"With over 5 billion pounds of copper estimated at the indicated level and another 3.5 billion pounds estimated at the inferred level, Ann Mason should now be recognized as a significant deposit in one of the best mining jurisdictions in the world."

London-based diversified miner Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) is taking a page out of BHP Billiton's playbook and is looking at selling some or all of its diamond mines.

"Shenhua is the most competitive bidder for the project given its technology, transport infrastructure, access to the Chinese market and the backing of the Chinese government," Shenhua CEO Ling Wen told reporters.

Dominique Delorme, President and CEO of La Mancha, noted: "Having quadrupled our resource base to nearly 5 million ounces of gold equivalent since 2007, it is exciting to see that this appears to only be the beginning, as we are just starting to scratch the potential at our Hassaï property, where nine more VMS targets remain to be explored."

Canadian company Roman Copper Corp won Monday's bid for Romania's largest copper mine, beating out three competitors including Australian miner OZ Minerals.

Nautilus Minerals Inc. shares were up almost 24% this morning (TSX:NUS), after the company released solid year end results with, narrowing its full-year loss in 2011 to US$34 million.