Canadian miners performance down 15% in Q3 on falling metal prices

It's not often that a junior mining company has star power in its corner. Black Iron (TSE:BKI) was busy fielding media calls Monday when the Toronto-based company announced it has retained celebrated CNN talk show host Larry King to help raise the profile of the company. Black Iron owns the Shymanivske project in Ukraine, an NI 43-101 compliant resource with 345 Mt measured and indicated resources grading 32% iron and 469 Mt of inferred resources grading 31% iron. The project is surrounded by five other operating mines including ArcelorMittal's iron ore complex.

For the third time this year, workers at the Collahuasi mine in Chile are on strike. The union representing the world's third largest copper mine is accusing management of reneging on agreements that ended a work stoppage in October, AFP reports. Production was paralyzed on July 30 and October 29 when workers downed tools. Collahuasi is owned by Switzerland’s Xstrata and Britain-based Anglo American. Reuters reports Collahuasi produced 504,000 tonnes of copper in 2010, when output was hit by a month-long strike. The mine expects to produce 500,000 tonnes of copper this year. It supplies roughly 3% of the world’s copper.

The Pebble Mine copper-gold-moly project in Southwestern Alaska got hit with another negative poll last week. The Huffington Post reports that 81% of the roughly 2000 shareholders of the Bristol Bay Native Corporation — the regional Native corporation and largest private landholder in southwest Alaska — have rejected the mine on the basis that it will "unavoidably put at risk the 'fisheries and our Native way of life.'" The project is a partnership between Anglo American (LON:AAL) and Northern Dynasty Minerals (NYSEAMEX:NAK).

Brazilian mining conglomerate Vale, the world's leading iron producer, reduced its spending budget by 11 percent for 2012 in the face of an uncertain outlook for the global economy and commodities prices. In a statement released today, the Rio de Janeiro-based company plans to invest $21.4 billion on mining projects next year after failing to meet spending targets in 2011.

A group of Indian companies and Canada's Kilo Goldmines Ltd. (CVE:KGL) have been awarded the contract to mine the Hajigak iron ore deposit in Afghanistan. MINING.com reported Nov. 19 that Indian firms were leading the chase for the huge iron ore property, which is being touted by the Afghans as the world’s largest iron ore deposit at 1.8 billion tonnes. The deposit extends over 32 kilometres and covers 16 separate zones. Bloomberg reports that President Hamid Karzai and his government awarded three of the four Hajigak blocks to seven Indian companies, led by state-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd. and NMDC Ltd., that were bidding with support from the Indian government. The fourth block was awarded to Kilo Goldmines, which is described on its website as a gold exploration and development company that is actively drilling several past-producing mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Chinese energy giant China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) took over oil sands operator Opti Canada Inc. (TSXV:OPC) today in a deal valued at Cd$2.1 billion. This acquisition gives China's top offshore oil company its second stake in a Canadian oil sands property. With the close, reports Reuters, CNOOC gains a 35 percent stake in the troubled Long Lake oil sands project, which operates well below its 72,000 barrels per day capacity as operator Nexen Inc (NXY.TO) works to overcome problems with the C$6.1 billion project's reservoir.

Following on from NASA's successful mars mission of the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, NASA's latest rover, Curiosity, was successfully launched on Saturday. The $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission is attempting to determine if Mars has an environment that could support life. Curiosity, which is five times the size of the previous vehicles, will orbit the red planet for a few months and then land on August 2011. The rover is equipped with a two metre arm that can take soil samples and drill rock. Rock samples are subject to a number of tests, including laser-induced radio spectrometry where the soil sample is vapourized and analyzed.

Copper advanced the most in more than two weeks in New York after record holiday sales in the U.S., the world’s second-biggest consumer of the metal, fuelled optimism demand will remain steady. Copper also gained as the euro climbed against the dollar after German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble urged fast-track treaty changes to tighten budget discipline.

UC Rusal, the world’s largest Aluminium producer, announced execution of a share purchase agreement with China North Industries Corporation under which it has agreed to purchase a 33% stake in a company Shenzhen North Investments Corporation Limited, a trading affiliate of NORINCO.