City scion’s tarnished Siberian gold mission

Aecon Group, Canada largest construction firm, announced Monday it has signed a letter of intent with the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan for a project valued at over $250 million to install the interior of a new process mill at the PotashCorp mine site near Rocanville, Saskatchewan. The project will create approximately 800 jobs at the construction site said Aecon in a press statement.  Site preparation is expected to begin in early 2012 and this portion of the project is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2013. Monday's deal brings the total value of projects announced by Aecon since September to over $850 million which has given its share price in Toronto an almost 30% boost over the period.

Gold for December delivery lost over $39 an ounce, or more than 2%, to trade at $1,685.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday on Monday. The losses were on top of a 3.6% slide last week and brings the decline in the metal from its November high to $110/oz. Bullion jumped to a record $1,921.15 an ounce on Sept. 6 and has now shown 11 consecutive years of price gains, but volatility in the gold market is increasing and the gap between gold’s highs and lows this year have reached more than $600, the largest since the 1960s. Gold has averaged about $1,705 so far this quarter and $1,563 in 2011, figures compiled by Bloomberg show.

Reuters reports copper hit its lowest in nearly a month on Monday as investors, already mired in worries over Europe's debt, digested news that US plans to combat debt are in disarray and took in warnings from China about gloomy global growth prospects. While US politicians' inability to reach consensus on tackling the country's debt problems was greeted with little surprise and the Europe crisis has been foremost in investors' minds for months, the statements by China's Vice Premier overnight really knocked sentiment. Wang Qishan said that a long-term global recession is certain to happen and China must focus on domestic problems. China is the world's top copper consumer, taking in about 40% of the world's copper versus Europe that accounts for 19% of demand.

Emerging from a short and distort saga awash in cash, Silvercorp Metals on Monday announced the acquisition of SX Gold, a mining concern controlled by the Luoyang city government in northeastern China's Henan province for $22.7 million. Earlier this month the company, the largest silver miner in China, increased its quarterly dividend by 25% to 2.5 cents, after reporting a big jump in second-quarter profit and record cash flows. The stellar financial results came after a forensic accounting report showed no truth to allegations of $1 billion in accounting fraud at the company which was first alleged on September 2 by shortsellers that had built up a massive position in the stock.

Graff Diamonds Ltd., the jewelry retailer whose founder twice set records buying gems at auction, plans to use funds from a proposed share sale to add stores in Asia as the region’s demand for luxury goods grows. The company plans to open outlets in Macau and Hangzhou, the largest city of Zhejiang province in eastern China, next year, Laurence Graff, 73, the chairman and founder of the London-based company said in a Nov. 18 interview with Bloomberg TV. The retailer has 32 stores worldwide including in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taipei, according to its website.

Due to euro jitters and the U.S. credit downgrade, investment demand in Europe for gold jumped 135% to a record quarterly value of €4.6 billion. On Thursday the World Gold Council’s Gold Demand Trends report for Q3 2011 was released. "The increase in overall investment demand was all the more impressive given the sharp gold price correction in September, which encouraged a wave of profit taking among bar and coin investors. Virtually all markets saw strong double-digit growth in demand for gold bars and coins," said the World Gold Council in a statement.

Brandon Lloyd Gray, a 26-year-old miner critically injured at Hecla Mining's Lucky Friday mine on November 17, succumbed to his injuries early Saturday morning with his family at his side. Lucky Friday is an underground silver, lead, and zinc mine located in the Coeur d’Alene Mining District in northern Idaho. Gray, a miner since 2008, had been working for Cementation Inc. since February 2011, a company that is under contract for the construction of the mine’s #4 Shaft. “We are deeply saddened by Brandon’s passing,” said Phil Baker, President and Chief Executive Officer in a released statement.

New $100 bills are being introduced that host a variety of security features to make them harder to counterfeit. Paper is out. The bills are now made from a single piece of polymer, which makes the bill more durable and gives it a smooth texture, except for some key features that are raised. Within the transparent areas are complex holographic features, which can be viewed from both either side of the bill.

Scientists have succeeded in making the world's lightest material, so light it can float on top of dandeloin fluff, and they made it out of nickel. The metal used matters less than the structure. The material, developed by researchers at HRL Laboratories, LLC, is made out of micro-lattices that maximize strength in relation to the amount of material used. The structure is actually 99.99% air. Nickel was used by the researchers since it was the easiest material to work with.