Irish gold mine receives okay to go underground

Despite growth in investment demand, Haywood Securities' Chris Thompson says silver remains "very much an industrial metal."

MBAC Fertilizer Corp. ("MBAC" or the "Company") (TSX:MBC) (OTCQX:MBCFF) is very pleased to announce the results of the Prefeasibility Study ("PFS") for the Company's 100% owned Santana Phosphate Project ("Santana" or the "Project") located in the southeast of Para State, Brazil.

Lucara's Karowe diamond mine in Botswana has yielded its first precious stones.

Canadian Peregrine Diamonds has discovered a third kimberlite during its winter drill program in the Lac de Gras region, Canada, one of the most prolific diamond districts in the world since kimberlite was first discovered there in 1991.

Baja Mining dropped 37% on Monday on more than 15 times usual trading volumes, after announcing its Boleo copper-cobalt-zinc project in Mexico will now cost 21.5% more and that half its board has resigned.

Nothing the company has done so far to assuage investors about its Aurora gold project has been successful and after dropping 5.5% on Monday it is now down over 60% since the start of the year.

World number one miner BHP Billiton on Monday bought five additional exploration plots near its giant Olympic Dam mine and expansion project, destined to become the world's largest open pit.

After a reasonably long period of sustained and occasionally dramatic escalations, commodity markets in general, and precious metals markets in particular, have declined. This is normal and healthy behavior, even if it is uncomfortable for some market participants.

Patriot Coal has closed another mine, bringing to four the number of its coal operations shut this year due to continuing weakness in market demand. The St. Louis-based company is idling the Freedom underground mine in Kentucky, giving 60 days notice to its employees.