BHP said to owe $215m in underpaid iron ore royalties to Western Australia

A Chinese TV station last week reported ‘through the roof’ gold demand which was leading to a shortage of supplies for fabrication.

Ivanhoe Mines announced its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2010. The approved 2011 capital budget for Oyu Tolgoi is estimated at $2.3 billion. Principal components of the 2011 construction program include $561 million for the 100,000-tonne-per-day concentrator complex; $186 million for the initial mining fleet and to start pre-stripping of the Southern Oyu open-pit mine; and $713 million for project infrastructure, electrical power and completion of the process-water supply. The number of workers assigned to the Oyu Tolgoi site recently surpassed 7,000 for the first time. On-site jobs at Oyu Tolgoi are expected to peak at almost 14,000 in mid-2011, with an additional 3,700 Mongolians receiving skills training sponsored by Oyu Tolgoi.

China will increase a tax on rare earths from April 1, the official Xinhua News Agency said on Thursday. The State Administration of Taxation website carried a local media report, saying the resource tax would be raised to 30-60 yuan per tonne, depending on the type of rare earth mineral, a substantial increase from the current level of 0.5-3 yuan per tonne.

China's exports of rare earth metals burst through the $100,000-per-tonne mark for the first time in February, up almost ninefold from a year before, while the volume of trade stayed far below historical averages. China's squeeze on rare earths, which are used in a wide range of hardware including precision-guided weapons, hybrid car batteries and iPads, has forced prices up dramatically since July last year, when each tonne fetched a mere $14,405 on average.

With Lanco looking to build on its recent Griffin Coal purchase, a new turf war is set to emerge between Indian suitors […]

In July 2007, one year after the housing bubble peaked and five months before the beginning of the Great Recession, Citigroup CEO Chuck Prince talked to the Financial Times about the health of the housing market. "When the music stops," he said, "things will be complicated. But as long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance."

Shanghai-listed Western Mining Co Ltd said it plans to build a 100,000-tonne-per-year copper smelter in the northern western Chinese province of Qinghai, Reuters reported: The cost of the project was estimated at 2.28 billion yuan ($347 million), the company said in a statement on Friday, adding that it would seek a partner to build the smelter with the Western Mining holding a majority stake. "The project is going to add pressure to the local supply of copper concentrate," said senior copper analyst Yang Changhua at state-backed research firm Antaike.

Reuters reported that China’s aluminum alloy exports may fall in the coming two to three months as top buyer Japan cuts imports […]

China's move on Kalahari Minerals could flush out other bidders for the uranium miner but even long-term suitor Rio Tinto may balk at getting into a bidding war with such a formidable foe.