Global exploration spending dropped 26% in last year, compared with 2013, as several juniors threw in the towel and producing miners slammed the brakes on capital and exploration expenditure.
Hearings starting on Monday for a new uranium mine in Canada's Nunavut territory are attracting opposition from environmentalists and local First Nations who say the Kiggavik project impinges on important caribou calving grounds.
A tight community of stock brokers, promoters and Canadian diamond investors saw some excitement today as North Arrow Minerals (NAR.V), a diamond explorer with active projects in Nunavut, Saskatchewan and elsewhere in Canada, halted its stock pending news.
Chinese Novel Sunrise Investments has agreed to buy 48.7 million shares in SouthGobi —which was once worth over US$2.4 billion —for 35 cents per share in cash.