Canadian miner eyes New Zealand’s gold

India infrastructure giant GVK on Saturday said it would pay $1.3 billion for Australia's Hancock Prospecting coal, rail and port projects and spend a further $10 billion developing them as it lines up energy supplies for upcoming power plants. Hancock's owner and richest woman in the world, Georgina Hope Rinehart will join GVK Power's board and retain a 21% stake in the mines. Rinehart, 57, is predicted to become the world’s richest person as the coal projects and Hancock's massive 100%-owned iron ore mines start producing by 2014 and earn her annual profits of as much as $10 billion. The so-called queen of iron ore who inherited a debt-ridden mining company from her father 20 years ago had already doubled her wealth from 2010 before Saturday's deal.

Western Australia’s manufacturing sector is losing nearly 150 jobs per day as workers chase high wages in mining.

Encouraged by test work that revealed extraction potential using its own technology at one of the world’s largest known glauconite deposits, Perth-based Potash West on Wednesday expanded it exploration tenure by almost 40% to 2,905km² in Australia's wheatbelt. The company raised $6 million on the Sydney bourse in May this year hoping to become the first Australian firm to break into the lucrative potash market dominated by about 10 mainly Canadian companies. Global potash prices currently average $500 a tonne, up more than 40% from 2008-recession lows.

Rio Tinto is to invest US$833 million (Rio Tinto share US$706 million) in major power and fuel supply projects as part of its drive to substantially increase iron ore production capacity in Western Australia. Rio Tinto's integrated Pilbara power and gas network will be upgraded with a US$520 million investment and a further US$313 million will be allocated to fuel infrastructure facilities.

The Australian quotes a Rio Tinto spokesman on Wednesday saying the discovery of a species of freshwater crab and a never before recorded shrimp near its Weipa mine would not be threatened by a planned bauxite expansion, but environmental protesters could still scupper the $900 million project. Rio Tinto, the world's number two miner, found a total of six species of crustacean including the new crab, which is about the size of a quarter, as part of its environmental impact study. It is now up to Australia state and federal governments to assess the findings.

A dispute in the north of New Caledonia has stopped the export of nickel ore from the SMSP site to its South Korean partner, Posco. Members of the Kaala-Gomen tribe claim that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provides for them to have a share of the profit drawn from mining.

Vista Gold (AMEX:VGZ) had no comment on why its share price jumped on Monday. Shares were up from $3.70 on Friday to $4.41 by the end of Monday, a 19% gain. "Vista Gold Corp. ("Vista" or the "Company") (TSX & NYSE Amex Equities: VGZ) announced today that as a result of unusual market activity in the Company's common shares on September 12, 2011, the NYSE Amex contacted the Company in accordance with the NYSE Amex's usual practice and requested that the Company issue a public statement regarding the unusual market activity. The Company states that its policy is not to comment on unusual market activity," said the company in a news release.

Chinese business leaders have warned of an investment strike over a decision by Treasurer Wayne Swan to impose a two-stage foreign approval process for resource exploration and mining.

The Australian reports BHP Mitsubishi's decision to bypass a thoroughly resistant troika of unions by seeking a direct employee ballot on a new three-year enterprise agreement takes the world's number one miner into deeply uncharted industrial relations waters. The move comes after nine months of fruitless negotiations and 11 different offers – including annual pay rises of 5% and a $15,000 bonus – all of which were rejected by the unions which will now resume strikes. The six mines operated by BHP Mistubishi have a combined output capacity of more than 58 million tonnes per year of mostly metallurgical coal, representing about a fifth of annual global trade.