Iron ore still in a bull market. What does it say about China?

There is no such thing as an average miner.  There is no such thing as an average salary.  Yet we can get some idea of how well mining people are paid by looking at the average salaries for 2011 on US metal mines recently published CostMine.

Barrick Gold Corp. (TSX:ABX) increased its quarterly dividend by 33%, as the company announced Wednesday a 3% increase in its first-quarter profit.

Following the resignation of inveterate dealmaker and founder Robert Friedland a fortnight ago, Rio Tinto insiders and Arthur Andersen alumni have been appointed to lead Ivanhoe.

There are conventionally 2,080 work hours in a year. Thus somebody earning a wage of $20 an hour gets the equivalent of a salary of about $42,000. Considering the mine manager makes about $100,000 to $150,000 a year, it is interesting to take a look at actual wages paid to miners in the United States in 2011.

58% of the world’s refined copper is now stockpiled in China, an increase of 40% in just six months. Traders say the country may hold as much as three quarters of the “spare” stock that is actually available to the market.

Allana Potash (TSX:AAA) surged 9.8% on Tuesday on higher than usual trading volumes, after upping the resource at its Danakhil project by 90%.

Japan and India have reached a basic agreement to jointly develop rare earths, used in the production of several high-tech goods from weapons to cell phones, and supply Tokyo with about 14% of its rare earth needs.

Bella Ideale Diamonds, a company that sells jewellery and provides strategies for diamond investing, claims that certain high quality diamonds exceed investment returns of traditional investments and are second only to gold in price appreciation over the past 10 years.

Birks, one of Canada's main manufacturers and retailers of fine jewellery since 1879, is bringing the largest collection of yellow diamonds ever to be exhibited in the jeweller's history to its Toronto location. A collection of pieces worth $10 million will be showcased at Birks on Bloor from May 2 to 6, 2012.