Fortaco opens sales office in Germany as part of European expansion

SinoCoking Coal and Coke Chemical Industries, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOK) (the "Company" or "SinoCoking"), a vertically-integrated coal and coke processor, today announced that Hongchang and Xingsheng coal mines have been cleared to resume operations at full capacity. The Hongchang mine has been operated by Baofeng Hongchang Coal Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Henan Pingdingshan Hongli Coal & Coke Co., Ltd. ("Hongli"), which the Company controls through contractual arrangements. Baofeng Xingsheng Coal Mining Co., Ltd. ("Xingsheng"), of which 60% equity interest is now registered to Hongli, has been operating the Xingsheng mine.

North Country Gold Corp. (TSX VENTURE:NCG) (NCG or the "Company") announces the third tranche of results from the 2011 drill program at the Three Bluffs Gold Project in the Committee Bay Greenstone Belt located northeast of Baker Lake, Nunavut, Canada. Drilling has intersected high grade gold to depth and along strike, west of the current resource area at the Three Bluffs and Three Bluffs West zones, increasing the strike length of the core Three Bluffs zones to over 1300 metres. Drilling has also confirmed the presence of mineralization over an additional 700 metres of strike between the Three Bluffs West and Antler zones.

As the country marked Heroes Day, Robert Mugabe used the occasion to make fresh threats to punish foreign owned companies from Western countries that have imposed targeted sanctions on him and his key ZANU PF officials. The US and European Union slapped the sanctions on Mugabe and his cronies because of human rights abuses.

Thompson Creek announced revenue for the second quarter of 2011 was $190.9 million, up 28.6% from $148.4 million in the second quarter of 2010. Revenue for the first six months of 2011 was $397.6 million, up 44% from $276.2 million for the same period in 2010. Sales volumes for the second quarter of 2011 were 10.8 million pounds, up 25% from 8.6 million pounds in the second quarter of 2010. Sales volumes for the first six months of 2011 were 22.4 million pounds, up 30.4% from 17.2 million pounds for the same period in 2010.

The price of crude slid more than six per cent Monday, dropping to a level experts say makes future oilsands mining projects look unprofitable if it persists.

A tough-talking mining company CEO is warning that Australia suffers from "rich country's disease" and is in danger of becoming a welfare state unless workers discover a "hunger for excellence." The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Andrew Michelmore — the former head of Western Mining Corporation and now chief executive of Chinese government dominated MMG, based in Melbourne — said he lamented the immobility of the Australian workforce and the resulting skills shortage in remote areas such as Western Australia's Pilbara.

Kimberley Process members may be regretting their decision in June to allow Zimbabwe to export diamonds, with a new BBC documentary showing security forces beating and raping prisoners at two camps in the Marange diamond fields. The New York Times reported on the release Monday of the documentary "Panorama", which said the camps held workers recruited by the police and the military to diamonds for them, and then demand a large share of the profits: "According to the report, a released prisoner who was not named said guards at the camps were beating prisoners three times a day, with 40 lashes at a time. Dogs were loosed to bite shackled inmates, and imprisoned women were frequently raped, the program said."

Gold investors could reap record windfall benefits from the economic uncertainty that crashed global stock markets Monday, say J.P. Morgan commodity analysts Colin Fenton and Jonah Waxman. The analysts predicted bullion could rise to $2500/ oz by the end of 2011, compared to an earlier J.P. Morgan prediction of $1800/oz, made before Standard and Poor downgraded the US debt.

Newfoundland-based Altius Minerals has expanded its exploration agreement with number-one US iron-ore miner Cliffs Natural Resources to include a new project in northern Labrador, it said on Monday. Image of serpentinized ultramafics with Cr pods in the Pipestone Pond area, by Altius Minerals