China’s falling out of love with gold, demand drops 19%

Confirming details leaked to the Washington Post on Wednesday the US State Department said on Friday a proposed $7 billion extension of the Keystone pipeline to US Gulf Coast refineries would not likely boost the amount of crude produced from Alberta's oil sands, suggesting it would have limited impact on the environment. A final decision on the controversial pipeline could come as soon as the end of the year. The news comes as demonstrators in front of the White House continue being arrested in efforts to convince President Barack Obama of Keystone XL’s dangers. The price Canada can charge for crude exports to the US is falling further behind the international benchmark because of a glut in the Midwest and some hedge funds have started to bet that the spread could go as high as $50/barrel leaving Alberta producers millions of dollars out of pocket per day.

A proposed open-cast coal mine on West Coast conservation land has gained resource consents because of its economic benefits. West Coast Regional Council released the decision yesterday to grant consents for a subsidiary of Perth-based Bathurst Resources Ltd to mine 200 hectares in the Mt Rochfort Conservation Area on Denniston Plateau, near Westport.

In a sign that consolidation in the uranium sector is gathering pace, world number one uranium producer Cameco announced on Friday it is extending a $527 million cash offer to shareholders of Hathor Exploration, after talks with the board of the junior explorer failed to result in a deal.

Oilsands Quest stock was trading below the rights offer price of 20c at the open on Friday after announcing it was extending a rights offer to advance its Axe Lake oil sands project in Saskatchewan a second time. The company is attempting to raise $60 million after it was forced to go it alone following a fruitless 11-month quest to find a partner or buyer.

Ollanta Humala, President-elect of Peru, fulfilled a campaign promise Thursday in announcing his government's intention to hit mining companies with higher royalty taxes. Humala, who was elected in July, campaigned on a promise to tax mining company profits and distribute them to the poor — a development that had investors and mining company CEOs running for cover in a country that is the world's second largest producer of copper and the sixth biggest gold miner. Companies now pay between 1% and 3% in royalties.

Working in a mine is more dangerous than being a police officer in America, according to the latest data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There have been many warnings of tyre shortages and now Eurotire, an emerging global leader in the OTR tire industry, has announced it will increase prices by up to 9.8% on all its OTR bias tyres and up to 11.5% on all its OTR radial tyres globally effective September 5, 2011.

Reuters reports 50,000 protesters battled police in Chile's capital on Thursday, the second day of a two-day strike against unpopular President Sebastian Pinera. A recent poll put the right-wing leader's approval rating at only 26%, below even that of dictator General Pinochet, who ruled the country for 17 years from 1973. The protests follows recent strikes in the copper sector over pay and a campaign against a massive coal mine on an island in Patagonia amid accusations that billionaire Pinera’s shareholding in the developer, Copec, constitutes a serious conflict of interest.

FT reports iron ore prices hit a three-month high above $180 a tonne on Thursday as supply outages and strong demand from China underpinned the steelmaking commodity. Started in 2008, derivatives trading in iron ore is up fourfold this year after setting a record in July, but he world’s top three miners – BHP Billiton, Vale and Rio Tinto – control nearly 70% of the 1 billion tonne annual seaborne trade and dominate price talks. BHP this week announced record profits on back of earnings from iron ore, its biggest division, which jumped 122% to $13.3 billion and CEO Marius Kloppers said unlike the situation in coal, global iron ore supplies are being 'overestimated'.