Northern Graphite tweaks Bissett Creek numbers

Silver Quest Resources (TSX VENTURE:SQI) ("Silver Quest" or "the Company") is pleased to report drill results from 11 holes (BW-171 through BW-179, BW-181 and BW-182) drilled in the current 20,000 metre drill campaign to expand the resources on the Davidson Gold Project claims, a joint venture with New Gold Inc., which is the operator of the joint venture. Silver Quest has a 25% interest in the joint venture. The project is approximately 110 kilometres southwest of Vanderhoof, BC.

North Country Gold Corp. (TSX VENTURE:NCG) (NCG or the "Company") announces the third tranche of results from the 2011 drill program at the Three Bluffs Gold Project in the Committee Bay Greenstone Belt located northeast of Baker Lake, Nunavut, Canada. Drilling has intersected high grade gold to depth and along strike, west of the current resource area at the Three Bluffs and Three Bluffs West zones, increasing the strike length of the core Three Bluffs zones to over 1300 metres. Drilling has also confirmed the presence of mineralization over an additional 700 metres of strike between the Three Bluffs West and Antler zones.

Kimberley Process members may be regretting their decision in June to allow Zimbabwe to export diamonds, with a new BBC documentary showing security forces beating and raping prisoners at two camps in the Marange diamond fields. The New York Times reported on the release Monday of the documentary "Panorama", which said the camps held workers recruited by the police and the military to diamonds for them, and then demand a large share of the profits: "According to the report, a released prisoner who was not named said guards at the camps were beating prisoners three times a day, with 40 lashes at a time. Dogs were loosed to bite shackled inmates, and imprisoned women were frequently raped, the program said."

Newfoundland-based Altius Minerals has expanded its exploration agreement with number-one US iron-ore miner Cliffs Natural Resources to include a new project in northern Labrador, it said on Monday. Image of serpentinized ultramafics with Cr pods in the Pipestone Pond area, by Altius Minerals

Shares of North American base metal miners tumbled on Monday along with the price of copper, zinc, and nickel after the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating by S&P amplified fears of a global economic slowdown.

After the S&P downgrade announced Friday evening, North American markets opened Monday and tumbled. The Australian stock market, measured by the S&P/ASX 200, finished the day down 2.91%, while the S&P/TSX composite was down 3.4% in morning trading to 11,796, its lowest level since August 2010. Gold breached $1,710 an ounces before settling back to $1,700/oz.

The Calgary Herald reports the debate over a controversial BC pipeline and port project to ship Alberta crude oil to Asian markets escalated recently with Canada's politicians and business leaders advancing new support for the initiative. Both federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver and the Canadian Council of Chief Executives gave strong backing to the Northern Gateway Project with Oliver calling the pipeline in the national interest. Slowing demand in the US is also adding to pressure for a go-ahead on the pipeline that will stretch for more than 1,100km to a new port facility at Kitimat, northern BC and will cost $5.5 billion.

Reuters reports Canada's IPO market could roar back to life in the final months of 2011 after a dismal first half – but only if a fresh bout of global market turbulence doesn't overwhelm any revival. Investment bankers say commodity producers could get the market sailing again once the summer doldrums are over. In contrast to new listings mergers and acquisitions in the mining sector have stayed robust in 2011 and Canadian companies – both as acquirers and as the targets of buyers – dominated corporate finance activity in the first half shaking on 325 deals and accounting for almost two-thirds of all the metals and minerals transactions carried out around the world.

The Times Colonist has a look at the history of coal mining on Vancouver Island starting in 1912 and writing that the troubles started in Extension, a small mining community a few kilometres south of Nanaimo. Two coal miners were fired when they complained to management that unacceptable levels of explosive gas existed at the coal face. One of the workers headed north seeking a job in the mines of Cumberland only to find he had been blacklisted - not just in Cumberland but throughout Vancouver Island. Their memories of a seemingly endless stream of disasters, from single deaths to the 150 dead in the Nanaimo No.1 mine explosion and fire in 1887, kept them implacable in their demands for greater safety.