China coal imports seen cooling once Beijing reins in prices

Perceiving a cloudy future for world markets, Ivanhoe Mines (NYSE:IVN) announced that they had negotiated an additional US$1.8 billion bridge financing for Oyu Tolgoi.

The market for iron ore is likely to soften this year but industry leaders Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are not pulling in production, betting that the slowdown in steelmaking is temporary.

The country hopes the new platform will help strengthen its pricing power and wrest control from Vale, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, which between them control three quarters of global seaborne ore supplies.

Brazilian iron ore producer Vale SA (VALE) will likely wait until the end of the Lunar New Year to sell a massive cargo of iron ore that was delivered into the Chinese port of Dalian via one of its “very large ore carriers” or VLOCs at the end of December, two traders said.

Gold traders are the most bullish in two months after mainland China imported the most metal ever from Hong Kong and investors bought US bullion coins at the fastest pace in more than two years.

Caterpillar is building on its Bucyrus acquisition with the recent signing of another contract to deliver an automated longwall coal plow system to Chinese company Gasification Co part of Lvliang Dongyi Group. The system marks the 11th plow system from DBT/Bucyrus/Caterpillar for delivery to Chinese mines. The system will be delivered in the first quarter of 2013 and will go to work in the Xinyan mine in Shanxi province

China’s Minmetals Resources Ltd has, once again, extended its $1.3 billion takeover offer for Africa-focused copper miner Anvil Mining Ltd (TSX:AVM) to Feb. 16. This is the third time that Minmetals offer has been extended since the deal got the go ahead by the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board, last October.

Joy Global Inc. (NYSE:JOY) ("Joy Global") a worldwide leader in high productivity mining solutions today announced the commencement of a tender offer for the remaining outstanding shares of International Mining Machinery Holdings Ltd. (HKSE:1683) ("IMM"), a leading designer and manufacturer of underground mining equipment in China.

NumberSleuth produced a fantastic gold infographic illustrating all the major trends: how much above-ground gold (gold that has been mined) is there in all the world, and how much gold gets mined per year worldwide?