Conflict gold case against Swiss refiner dropped 

Silver Wheaton Corp. (SLW.TO) announced its audited results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2011. It also announced that its Board of Directors has declared its first quarterly cash dividend payment for 2012 of US$0.09 per common share.

Coal Rush, a documentary running next week at the Atlanta Film Festival, tells the story of a 7-year crusade by US attorney Kevin Thompson, along with other attorneys, advocates and affected residents, to halt the injection of coal slurry into the Appalachian mountains by now-defunct coal miner Massey Energy.

EU regulators are stepping up scrutiny of the mooted $90 billion merger of the commodities trader and coal giant and the whole vetting process could take until early 2013. That is if the deal goes ahead at all.

The Tata Group, India's largest conglomerate, is said to be investigating a joint venture with South African coal producer Increase Coal.

None of mining's top companies escaped the carnage on Thursday after a survey of manufacturing in China showed activity slowed for a fifth straight month.

Beijing launched the new spot price platform in January in a bid to shift the balance of power in price negotiations away from the big three.

Outotec, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of filtration solutions for the mineral processing industry, has introduced a modular version of the Larox filtration plant. It is available in configurations that suit scope, scale-up and the unique specifications of individual plants.

Randgold Resources (LON:RRS, NASDAQ:GOLD) shares fell close to 13% this morning after a military coup in Mali, where the company has three gold mines that account for most of its bullion production.

Takeover activity is poised to heat up in the Canadian uranium sector as energy-hungry China hunts for feedstock to fuel its growing family of nuclear reactors.