China to launch $16bn gold investment fund

Avalon Rare Metals, whose Nechalacho rare earth prospect in Canada's Northwest Territories is in the midst of a feasibility study, today announced the results of a separate prefeasibility study for the separation plant, to be built in Louisiana.

China, the world's biggest consumer of coal, said that the gross domestic product came in at 8.1% in the first quarter, the lowest figure in three years.

Harmony Gold briefly dropped to a year low of $9.68 on Friday after the company announced a steep fall-off in output for the first quarter. Now worth $4.4 billion the counter is down a third in a year, but its Papua New Guinea project may be worth that by itself.

Alderon Iron Ore Corp saw a 2% bump in its stock price Friday on news that the Canadian iron ore junior has inked a CAD$194 agreement with China's largest steel producer.

The decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone brought two unforgettable images to the West: victims of violence whose limbs were hacked off by armed rebels as a warning to civilians; and the term "blood diamonds," referring to the diamonds plucked by hand from alluvial deposits that were smuggled out of the country and used by both sides of the warring factions to fund their vicious campaigns.

Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMP) is going ahead with its planned $5 billion expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline in Canada, which brings crude oil from the Alberta oil sands to Vancouver’s port.

Output from the resources industry in the African nation is now the lowest since 1961, the year South Africa left the British Commonwealth and declared itself a republic

Metals producer Doe Run Peru’s creditors rejected a restructuring plan the company presented with a view to restarting operations at the La Oroya smelter, said in a statement the Energy and Mines Ministry, Jorge Merino Tafur.

The melting ice cap in the Arctic sea could open up access to immense mineral reserves, attracting billions of dollars in investment, but also bringing with it unique risks and challenges, says Lloyd’s/Chatham House latest Risk Insight report.