China’s June coal imports fall as local miners boost output

Chinese citizens continue to buy gold in record volumes with October the fourth successive record month for imports via Hong Kong

Australia's Extract Resources Ltd., owner of the world’s fourth-largest uranium deposit, advised shareholders to take no action regarding the $2.2 billion takeover bid from Chinese nuclear fuels supplier Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp (CGNPC).

China Knowledge reports the Middle Kingdom could experience an escalation in the demand for iron ore according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Brazilian gold miner Jaguar (NYSE:JAG), which last month became the subject of takeover rumours, fell more than 10% on Wednesday, after the sudden resignation of its CEO and president Daniel Titcomb.

Pressured by Asian and European steelmakers not wanting to be locked into expensive iron ore contracts, Vale SA has bent to a new system that would see lower quarterly prices.

Anvil Mining, a copper producer in the Democratic Republic of Congo, announced Wednesday China's Minmetals Resources has extended its $1.3 billion takeover offer for the second time, to January 11 next year. The extension comes as violence and allegations of vote rigging mar the DRC presidential election, for which full results is now only expected later this week. Anvil is also undergoing an audit of its leases with the DRC's state-owned Gecamines.

The Vale Beijing, the globe's largest bulk carrier, is disabled in a Brazilian port and shipping agents tell Reuters the vessel had ruptured its hull. If the $110 million vessel should sink it could also turn out the be the final nail in the coffin of Vale's disastrous strategy to tighten its grip on the world's annual 1 billion tonnes sea-borne iron-ore trade. China, the world's number one market for the steelmaking ingredient to where Vale ships about 45% of its output, turned away another carrier in the fleet earlier this year.

Korea Resources Corporation (KORES) has reached a definitive agreement with Canadian Frontier Rare Earths Ltd. to secure a 10 per cent interest in the Zandkopsdrift rare earth element mining project in South Africa. The contract, signed in Johannesburg on Thursday, involves an investment by KORES in both Frontier and in the large-scale rare earth element project owned by the Canadian company, along with an off-take agreement that could commit up to 31 percent of future production.

Interfax-China reports that about half of China iron ore miners – mainly small and medium-sized firms – have suspended production in the face of dwindling profit margins.