Global gold production to hit fresh record in 2019

Canadian gold royalties company Franco-Nevada aims to raise C$340-million in an equity offering, it said on Tuesday. The TSX- and NYSE-listed firm said it would use the cash for acquisitions, working capital and general corporate purposes.

Canada's net crude oil exports will triple by 2035 due to in situ production and not hydraulic fracturing, according to a report by the National Energy Board released on Tuesday. Oilsands accounts for 55% of Canada's oil production today rising to 85% 24 years from now. "By 2035, in the Reference Case, oil sands bitumen production is projected to reach 811 thousand m³/d (5.1 million bbl/d), three times the production for 2010."

Imperial Metals (TSE:III) is extending its Huckleberry mine in northern British Columbia by 7 years. The company said it plans to extend the Main zone pit and build a new tailings storage facility, which will keep the mine running until 2021, 7 years later than the previous plan to close the mine in 2014. The pit is estimated to contain 39.7 million tonnes of ore grading 0.343% copper, with an overall strip ration of 1.46 to 1. Since startup in 1997, the mine has produced an aggregate 870 million pounds of copper, 8 million pounds of molybdenum, and 105,000 ounces of gold and 3.4 million ounces of silver.

Boardroom chairs are being shifted at two large diversified mining companies, Vancouver-based Teck Resources and Brazilian powerhouse Vale SA, the world's second largest miner. Teck announced yesterday that Marcia Smith, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, will replace Doug Horswell as Senior Vice President, Sustainability and External Affairs. Horswell, staging into retirement, will work half-time in the company's Zinc and Health program. Meanwhile, Vale announced that coming this Thursday, CEO Murilo Ferreira will submit to the Board of Directors a proposal for a new structure of the company's Executive Board. Among the changes, the most high-profile is the replacement of CFO Guilherme Cavalcanti with Tito Martins, who currently runs Vale’s base metals division.

Nebraska legislators have voted unanimously to reroute the Keystone XL pipeline away from an ecologically sensitive region and the governor has signed new bills into law. The legislation is to pay for new environmental studies on the exact route the rerouted pipeline will take. The state and the proponent of the project, Canadian company TransCanada Corp. (TSE:TRP), agreed earlier this month to reroute the $7 billion project away from the Ogallala aquifer, a sprawling water table that provides water to cities and for irrigating farms. The new path would involve about 50 kilometres of pipeline. The company had long resisted changing the route, having already spent some $1.4 billion securing right of ways and stockpiling material for the project, which would deliver 700,000 barrels of crude oil a day from the Alberta oilsands to Texas refineries.

Zimbabwe's efforts to declare its "blood-stained" diamonds clean is bordering (no pun intended) on the ridiculous, writes Tangai Chipangura, a columnist at News Day.

New $100 bills are being introduced that host a variety of security features to make them harder to counterfeit. Paper is out. The bills are now made from a single piece of polymer, which makes the bill more durable and gives it a smooth texture, except for some key features that are raised. Within the transparent areas are complex holographic features, which can be viewed from both either side of the bill.

TORONTO, Nov. 18, 2011 /CNW/ - Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited ("Agnico-Eagle") (NYSE & TSX: AEM) and Grayd Resource Corporation ("Grayd") (TSX-V: GYD & OTCQX: GYDRF) announced today that 91,228,900 common shares (the "Shares") of Grayd, representing approximately 94.77% of the outstanding Shares on a fully-diluted basis, have been validly deposited pursuant to the offer (the "Offer") made by Agnico-Eagle to acquire all of the issued and outstanding Shares. All conditions of the Offer have been satisfied and the Offer has now expired and will not be extended. Agnico-Eagle has taken up all deposited Shares and will pay for such deposited Shares not later thanNovember 23, 2011.

Calgary-based Laricina Energy said Friday it is seeking regulatory approvals for a 150,000 barrel-per-day expansion at its Germain oilsands project in northern Alberta. The three-phase expansion would add to the 5,000 bopd Germain Commercial Demonstration Project for a total production capacity of 155,000 bopd of bitumen from the Grand Rapids Formation.