Costs of Mexico copper mine spill climbs to almost $140 million

The vast Central Asian nation, larger than Western Europe, produces 33 percent of world’s mined uranium, followed by Canada at 18 percent and Australia, with 11 percent of global output. Kazakhstan contains the world's second-largest uranium reserves, estimated at 1.5 million tons. Until two years ago Kazakhstan was the world's No. 3 uranium miner.

Latin American Herald Tribune reports Venezuela's first shipment of 160 – 180 tonnes of gold held abroad was received at Maiquetia International Airport outside Caracas on Friday night. In operation that also involved tanks and aircraft, the first of some 15,000 standard 400-ounce bars wrapped in black plastic inside a caravan of armoured vehicles escorted by 500 soldiers then made its way to the bank’s headquarters downtown. President Hugo Chavez announced in August that the South American country plans to repatriate its gold reserves held by banks in England, the US, Canada and France. The Central Bank of Venezuela already holds 154 tons of bullion domestically.

“Chinese companies that are looking to invest in Canada do not want to become a Potash-like story themselves. Face and company reputation are important,” Peter Harder, president of the Canada-China Business Council told The Globe & Mail in an interview in Beijing this week as executives gathered for the council’s annual general meeting.

BusinessLive reports that while acid mine drainage from disused gold mines in the Johannesburg area of South Africa is well documented, according to a new study AMD from nearly 6,000 abandoned mines is acidifying rivers and streams, raising metals levels and killing fish. The study by World Wide Fund for Nature SA and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research showed that South Africa’s heavy dependence on coal for electricity had a “devastating” effect on the country’s water resources, particularly in light of the fact that only 12% of the country’s land area generated 50% of the country’s river flow. The most affected river was the Olifants which flows through the Kruger National Park in a region of the country where coal mining dates back to the 1890s.

A joint venture between uber-miner Rio Tinto and Chinese partner Chinalco was finalized on Friday. The JV, called CRTX, has been officially registered and cleared to do business in China. The new company's priority will be exploring for copper, with plans to expand into coal and potash, Rio Tinto stated in a news release.

Reuters reports schools and businesses were closed and Peruvian police fired tear gas on Friday to break up a protest at Newmont Mining and Buenaventura's proposed $4.8 billion Conga gold mine as the government tried to mediate a bitter environmental dispute over the project. Residents in the northern city of Cajamarca which has more than 200,000 residents (pictured), led by the president of the region,  say a new mine – adjacent to South America’s largest gold mine Yanacocha – will harm agriculture and livestock by relocating water supplies.  Conga would be the biggest investment ever in Peru mining.

Shares in some of the world's biggest copper producers are getting trounced as the price of the bellwether metal continues to flounder around the $3.27 per pound mark. Taking a 3-month time frame, Lundin Mining (TSE:LUN) has shed 37% of its share price, BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) is down 22%, Anglo American (LON:AAL) has sunk 15%, and Freeport McMorran (NYSE:FCX) has crashed 28%. Three-month contracts for the red metal fell to a one-month low Wednesday to $7,168 a tonne in intra-day trade in London and extended its losses in New York where it was trading at $3.27 a pound, its lowest level since October 25 and down 30% from its 2011 high of $4.61 set in February.

Nautilus, the first company to explore the ocean floor for polymetallic seafloor massive sulphide deposits, announced on Friday a drilling campaign conducted at its tenements in the Bismarck Sea of Papua New Guinea has enabled the company to increase the resource estimate at its Solwara 1 project, and to declare a maiden Inferred Resource at the nearby Solwara 12 deposit. Earlier this month Toronto-listed company completed the quarter with a cash balance of $155.1 million, after successfully raising $70.5 million in the first tranche of a $98.1 million capital raising. The final tranche of C$27.6 million was received in October. The capital raising involved the issue of approximately 39 million shares at C$2.52 per share. The counter was trading down 2.9% on Friday at $2.29 giving it market worth of $448 million.

Investors are wondering why Russian steel-maker Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works is buying Flinders Mines (ASX:FMS) for A$554 million. Flinder's main asset is the Pilbara iron ore project, a 917.3Mt JORC-compliant resource located in Western Australia. MMK is Russia's third largest steel company. Last year it had revenue of $7.7 billion and net income of $254 million.