Mining the Americas in 2019 — a forecast

In the last decade spending on exploration in British Columbia has increased 20 fold. It was another bright spot for British Columbia's mining sector, as covered in PricewaterhouseCoopers' industry survey. "The estimated total economic output, value added GDP employment generated from exploration and development activities are $352 million, $168 million and 3,017 jobs respectively," wrote the survey authors.

An iron ore project in northeastern Canada whose proponent is calling "the next Consolidated Thompson," has taken an important step forward. Alderon Iron Ore Corp. (TSE:ADV) announced today it has begun filing material to start the federal and provincial environmental assessment process. The application would allow Alderon to double future annual production at its Kami Project in Quebec-Labrador to 16 million tonnes of iron ore concentrate annually.

According to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC), direct mining expenditures in British Columbia mining crested $5.2 billion in 2010. An additional $3.7 billion was spent in secondary and support industries and services resulting in a total of $8.9 billion of economic activity across British Columbia. The Economic Impact Analysis report commissioned by the Mining Association of British Columbia (MABC) and compiled by PwC measures direct, indirect and induced economic impacts of mining in terms of output, Gross Domestic Product, employment and government tax revenues.

Stock boards were buzzing on Tuesday as traders tried to figure out why Western Potash Corp. was soaring 18.2% without any news about the $200 million firm that would drive the share higher. Despite having nothing to go on, speculators had swapped 2.3m shares by 3pm in Toronto, 1.5 times usual volumes. The junior player in Saskatchewan’s potash industry is in the pre-feasability stage of its 940 million tonne Milestone Project, but some doubt if WPX would be able to muster the finances and logistics to go up against the giants operating in the province.

Facing strong resistance from local constituencies, Nebraska governor Dave Heineman says he'll meet with state lawmakers to consider challenging the proposed route for the Keystone XL pipeline, CBC reports: Pipeline opponents, including a coalition of environmentalists, ranchers and landowners, sought the special session to consider a proposal that would have given the state control over the pipe's route. Lawmakers, however, said last week that the measure wouldn't likely survive a court challenge. The issue is expected to be addressed during the special session beginning Nov. 1.

Vancouver-based Titanium Uranium Inc. (CVE:TUE) and Toronto-based Energy Fuels (TSE:EFR) announced merger plans on Tuesday. Under the deal, outlined in a letter of intent, Energy Fuels will acquire all of Titan's outstanding common shares. Upon completion, Titan shareholders will own approximately 42% of EFR's issued and outstanding common shares.

Despite global economic uncertainty, resource-rich Saskatchewan should offer significant salary gains for its workers in 2012, seeing an average 3.9% increase in wages. The Conference Board of Canada's compensation outlook was released on Tuesday. Saskatchewan is the world's largest exporter of potash and uranium. It also has a significant oil and gas sector. Saskatchewan leads all provinces in wage increases, followed by Alberta at 3.6 per cent.

Passport Potash, Inc. (TSX VENTURE:PPI)(OTCQX:PPRTF) has signed a letter of intent to enter into binding agreements under which NZ Potash, LLC will sell to Passport its 50% ownership interest in HNZ Potash, LLC. Passport and HNZ Potash will strive to jointly develop their combined potash properties in the Holbrook Basin. When combined the properties will contain over 200,000 acres of mineral rights and will cover over 300 square miles. Following the release of Passport's NI 43-101 from SRK containing an exploration potential, the Company intends to jointly prepare an NI 43-101 resource report with HNZ Potash. Exploration activities of the combined companies that have been completed to date consist of over 50 drilled wells and over 100 lines miles of 2D seismic.

In an object lesson on the fickle nature of junior explorer investment, dismayed investors took a huge chunk out of Viper Gold's stock on the Toronto Venture Exchange after trade resumed Monday afternoon. Viper lost 18% of its value to trade at 13c after it reported results for the verification sampling at its Campbell Lake property showed none of the high grade gold values – up to 10 grams a tonne – announced a fortnight ago. The initial grades sent the shares of the tiny Ontario explorer soaring to almost double of what it is worth now. The company said it is investigating the huge discrepancies after weakly anomalous values were found in 5 samples and the remaining 12 were "below detection level." Viper, which is also looking for gold in Peru, hit a high of 47c early this year.