Miners in Asia and Africa more likely to switch to different OEM within next five years

Gemcom Software International Inc., the largest global supplier of mining software solutions, today announced that Dave Osborn has been appointed managing director for the company’s Africa business unit, providing strategic leadership for the region’s market-leading and fast-growing operations.

The metal's characteristic price volatility – why traders often refer to it as the 'devil's metal' – is a deterrence for investors and silver had an especially torrid 2011.

Canadian mining company Quaterra Alaska and county supervisors in northern Arizona have filed a lawsuit against the US government, aiming to reverse a federal 20-year closure of one million acres of uranium-rich public lands located near the Grand Canyon.

A rare nine-carat pink diamond ring belonging to philanthropist and heiress, Huguette Clark, sold for $15 million at a Christie's auction.

Syria is trying to sell gold reserves to raise revenue as Western and Arab sanctions targeting its central bank and oil exports begin to bite, diplomats and traders said.

Chile's state-owned mining company Codelco, the world's largest copper producer London-based Anglo American (LSE: AAL) should try reaching a negotiated solution to the ongoing dispute about Codelco’s stake in Anglo’s Sur unit, said British ambassador to Chile, Jon Benjamin.

Brazil's aluminum output in March went up 3.7% to 125,000 tonnes, according to the national aluminum association, Abal.

The world’s largest refined platinum producer Anglo American Platinum (Amplats, AGPPY) says it will hit its full-year production target for 2012, despite a severe fall in production in the first quarter of this year.

Copper prices will continue dipping but only until the middle of this year, at which point they should start rising again, according to the latest Thomson Reuters’ GFMS Copper Survey and members of the industry.