Wolfden reports drill results at Orvan Brook

On only the second day of trading in Western Potash Corp. common shares on the main board in Toronto, investors were already abandoning the stock in droves. The junior player in Saskatchewan’s potash industry ended Wednesday down 5.5% after an analyst downgraded the stock. Western Potash is in the pre-feasability stage of its Milestone Project in the south of the province where it hopes to mine almost a billion tonnes of potash using steam.

Reuters) - Opti Canada Inc , whose major asset is a stake in Nexen Inc's troubled Long Lake oil sands project in northern Alberta, filed for court protection from creditors on Wednesday as it agreed on a equity-for-debt swap with bondholders. Opti said

Northgate Minerals announced on Wednesday that it will acquire Primero Mining for $370 million. The new company, which will have a combined market capitalization of approximately $1.2 billion, will be a mid-tier gold producer and will tie together the San Dimas mine in Mexico; the Fosterville and Stawell gold mines in Australia; and the Young-Davidson gold development project in Ontario.

Precious metals company North American Palladium Ltd expects underground production at its Vezza gold project in the Abitibi region of Quebec to begin early next year.

Proving that nothing is a sure bet – not even the development of prime bitumen fields – Oilsands Quest on Tuesday suffered a second day of heavy losses, dropping 10% shortly after the open. The losses come after the company said it will ask for more cash from investors because its almost one-year long global quest to find a heavyweight partner has come up empty handed. It is also bad news for Saskatchewan’s oil sands aspirations as Oilsands Quest was hoping to build the province’s first thermal mine but does not have the wherewithal to go it alone.

Polar bears were the theme of the diamond jewelry items presented to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during their visit to Canada's Northwest Territories. The newlyweds received a set of diamond pave cufflinks modeled after the polar bear logo of the NWT Government, and a diamond pave brooch also in the shape of the North's iconic bear.

Zimbabwe’s state-controlled Herald newspaper reported on Thursday the Harare government is investigating De Beers over claims it smuggled out gems worth "hundreds of millions of dollars" from the controversial Chiadzwa fields. De Beers spent eight years exploring the fields, but later claimed it had failed to find any meaningful deposits according to Zimabwe's deputy mines minister. Diamonds were found by villagers in Chiadzwa in 2006, leading to a frenzied diamond rush that was eventually crushed by the army. Zimbabwe's diamonds are the subject of an international ban although most industry watchers believe it is being widely flouted.

Potash will play a huge role in Saskatchewan's predicted economic growth of an average rate of 3.5% over 2011 and 2012, according to the latest economic forecast by Scotiabank. Potash production is expected to climb close to its 2007 peak of 11 million tonnes in 2011, after suffering a dramatic 60% drop during the recession of 2009.

South Africa's role in getting Zimbabwe's diamonds back into international trade is being slammed as "dangerous", amid revelations that government officials there have helped export millions of dollars worth of Zim diamonds. South Africa's State Diamond Trader officials admitted in parliament last week that they had helped Zimbabwe export diamonds from Chiadzwa, despite an international ban on the trade.