Alrosa opens Russia’s largest diamond mine

Gold for December delivery traded at $1,789.60 in after hours trade on Tuesday after earlier achieving a new record closing price of $1,785 per ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The previous closing record was $1,784.30 last week Wednesday when gold futures contracts hit an all-time intra-day high above $1,800. Reuters reported earlier on Tuesday the largest gold fund players including hedge fund titan John Paulson stuck with their bullion bets in the second quarter, opting not to follow George Soros who further reduced his gold ETF holdings.

The market is expecting BHP Billiton to post record-setting annual profits of $US22.1 billion next week on revenues forecast to be a staggering $71.9 billion. BHP investors, whose stock has hardly moved in a year despite stellar growth rates at the Melbourne-based company, would want to hear if another share buyback will follow the $10 billion round completed in June and any update on its purchase of Petrohawk. The world's biggest miner has a history dating back 150 years and its operations span the globe from potash in Canada (pictured) and coal in South Africa to nickel in Australia and copper in Chile.

Barrick Gold Corp. closed down slightly and outperformed a weak broader market on Tuesday despite a downgrade from CIBC World Markets, which is advising investors to remain cautious as the miner diversifies into copper. Barrick is up some 12% this summer, tracking bullion's spectacular rise, but investors have not welcomed its move into base metals. In April it outbid a Chinese company for Equinox in a $7.7 billion deal, its first real foray outside gold. The global growth outlook has clouded considerably since then and copper – a good indicator of economic activity – is trading at 9-month lows.

Chinese companies mull investing in Romania's nuclear and coal sectors, Mediafax reported after the visit of the Romanian government delegation, headed by PM Emil Boc, to China.

Stellar Pacific Ventures announced that it was awarded by the Ministry of Mines of the Republic of Mali, an exploration authorization for the Namarana area which covers over 132 km2. This mineral title was delivered July 22, 2011 to Stellar Pacific Mail SARL, the company's wholly owned (100%) subsidiary in Mali.

DRC gold mine on track for Q4 production – Banro New York- and Toronto-listed Banro on Monday said its Twangiza gold project is on track to become the first new commercial gold mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in more than 50 years, with

Yukon-Nevada Gold announced its financial and operational results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2011. Highlights for the three-month period ended June 30, 2011 include the Jerritt Canyon Mine whihch produced 22,168 ounces from purchased ore, stockpiles and mining operations in the three months ended June 30, 2011, compared with 18,441 ounces in 2010, reflecting a 20% increase in production despite continued shutdowns.

Contract mining and construction firm Macmahon Holdings has secured various Australian mining contracts worth $90m. The first contract involves predevelopment work adjacent to current operations at BHP Billiton Iron Ore's Wheelarra mine and mining

Petra Diamonds is pleased to announce that Ministerial consent in terms of Section 11 of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, 2002 (“MPRDA”) has been granted for the cession and transfer of the new order mining right for the Finsch diamond mine in South Africa (“Finsch”) from De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited (“De Beers”) to Afropean Diamonds (Pty) Limited (”Afropean”). Afropean represents Petra’s interests in Finsch; Afropean being owned as to Petra 74% and Petra’s Black Economic Empowerment partners 26%.