Wolfden reports drill results at Orvan Brook

The U.S. State Department's final environmental review of a proposed Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline will affirm an earlier finding that the project will have "limited adverse environmental impacts," The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

A top executive at Saskatchewan PotashCorp says potash producers will not be able to meet the 2011 world supply capability of 61 million tonnes. David Delaney, PotashCorp executive vice-president and chief operating officer, said in a conference call Tuesday that "hitting the target would have required "perfect production, very little downtime. When you're pulling all these operations around the world that hard, it's really difficult to do."

Balmoral Resources Ltd. ("Balmoral" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:BAR) reported results from the first six holes of its summer 2011 drill program on the Martiniere Gold Property located along the Detour Gold Trend in Quebec.

Stephen Harper is using the backdrop of peaking gold prices amid international economic turmoil to sell his vision of economic development in Canada's Far North.

Mountain Province Diamonds said on Wednesday it is breaking off talks with unspecified parties that showed an interest in the company and is instead focusing on advancing its Gahcho Kué project and to arrange its share of the financing which amounts to some $600 million. Shares in the little-traded company jumped almost 8% on the news.

TSX V-quoted Noront Resources on Tuesday published the results of a prefeasibility study into its Eagles Nest nickel-copper-platinum project in Ontario’s Ring of Fire, outlining a $734-million capital investment for a one-million ton a year mine.

Canada's largest iron ore producer is looking to expand its operations in Newfoundland/Labrador. IOC announced last week that it has launched a study to evaluate options that would increase production to 50 million tonnes per year by 2016. The expansion effectively doubles IOC's capacity from 26 million tonnes per annum, the target set for 2013 after the completion of three concentrate expansion projects (COPs).

Canadian Natural Resources said on Tuesday its Horizon oil sands operation has resumed production after a seven month gap caused by a fire. The Calgary-based company said expects to reach full capacity of 110,000 barrels per day of syncrude – a light oil manufactured from bitumen – by next week. The Horizon outage led to a shortage of syncrude which helped Alberta’s producers attract a premium of $18 above benchmark US oil. That premium is now shrinking and is set to return to normal levels of a slight discount. Last week the spread between US crude and North Sea Brent reached a record margin of $26 a barrel. Western Canada Select in turn trades at $13 a barrel below US levels which on Tuesday was $84 a barrel.

While miners in Chile, South Africa, Indonesia and Mexico downed tools recently to strike for higher wages, those working in the Canadian mining sector can take comfort in knowing that their pay packets are expected to grow fatter than workers in other Canadian industries. According to a report by consulting firm Hay Group, which surveyed 660 Canadian employers, companies expect to see wages climb 2.8 per cent on average across their work force in 2012, with salary gains of 3.8 per cent in the mining sector and 3.7 per cent in the oil and gas field.