Gold miners don’t quite put a ring on it: Liam Denning

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.

Silvercorp Metals, China’s biggest silver miner, was changing hands for $9.72 in Toronto on heavy volumes shortly after the open Monday, up almost 19% after a report by the forensic accounting arm of KPMG showed no truth to allegations of $1 billion in accounting fraud at the company. Shareholders who held onto their Silvercorp stock during the rollercoaster ride that started on September 2 when the company had to go public with the accusations, believed to be the work of shortsellers that had built up a massive position in the stock, are now able to show a handsome profit for their loyalty. The company is suing two New York-based websites – Chinastockwatch.com and Alfredlittle.com – for spreading false information and is seeking punitive and compensatory damages.

Reuters reports a proposed European Union law to rank Canadian oil sands as dirtier than conventional fuel can probably be successfully defended if Ottawa challenges the move at the World Trade Organization according to legal advisers to the EU's executive. The statement comes a day after environmentalists hurled accusations and interrupted a speech by Canada's resources minister, who was on tour to persuade Britain not to join the EU oil sands initiative. The government of Alberta has also written to EU experts voicing "grave concerns" that the bloc's plans are unfair and a potential threat to trade ties ahead of a Tuesday meeting to debate a green ranking of fuels. Royal Dutch Shell and France's Total are the top European investors in the oil sands.

Two days after the BC government compensated Boss Mining $30 million for expropriating its mining claims near Kelowna as part of a province-wide uranium mining ban in 2008, another company is pursuing a cash settlement. BIV reports that International Montoro Resources (CVE:IMT) is proceeding with its claim against the BC government for expropriating its Cup Lake-Donen uranium deposit in April 2008. The company is seeking $2 million for its properties after sinking $2 million into the ground says BIV.

Taseko Mines (TSE:TKO) estimates its proposed New Prosperity copper-gold mine would generate $9.8 billion in tax revenues for the federal and BC government over the next 20 years. The Vancouver-based company is taking another run at developing the $1.5-billion project after the federal government rejected it last fall. The gold- copper project in northern British Columbia raised the ire of environmentalists and First Nations groups for the proposed destruction of a lake to be used as a tailings impoundment. A provincial environmental assessment process had approved the project, but the federal government’s own review rejected it last November.

Aecon Group Inc.’s Industrial West Division has been awarded two contracts worth $132 million for fabrication and module assembly work for an un-named oil sands operator in Fort McMurray, Alta. The Toronto-based construction and infrastructure development company said the contracts are for two large steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) oil sands project near Fort McMurray, Alberta.