Billions of barrels-worth of shale oil found in southern England

Copper futures retreated Thursday, snapping Wednesday’s rally to a three-month high, as negative sentiment over China’s economic future outweighed better-than-expected US manufacturing data.

Stocks of Canadian potash juniors Allana, Passport and Western Potash all showed double digit gains for the week to Thursday as the heavyweight producers all announce significant contract price gains and their export arm appears to run out of inventories altogether. This after Bloomberg quoted the CEO of Mosaic as saying the Canpotex "cupboard is bare" and that the sensitive issue of fertilizer deliveries to India's 55 million farmers is not being discussed at the moment.

Two reports out on Thursday suggest that iron ore is far from being merely a relic of the industrial revolution and still plays a central role in the world economy and the commodities markets. Reuters reports top investment bank Goldman Sachs is preparing to enter the physical iron ore market and the FT says the so-called commodities bible – Cyclope’s World Commodity Yearbook – just published in English is a testament to how the pricing of iron ore from secretive negotiations and annual contracts to prices linked to the spot market constitutes a “true revolution”.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg who has a personal fortune of some $18 billion joined with the environmental lobby group Sierra Club on Thursday in a $50 million, four-year plan to cut one-third of US coal-fired power plants. "If we are going to get serious about reducing our carbon footprint in the United States, we have to get serious about coal, " Bloomberg said. Rolling Stone reported that he was standing on a boat on the Potomac river not far from a 60-year old coal-fired power station to drive his message home.

According to a new report by Business Monitor International Russia's mining sector is set to grow slowly over the forecast period to 2015, marking a reversal of the declining output seen since 2006. Business Monitor forecasts the value of the mining sector to reach US$259bn in 2015 from US$134bn in 2010, marking an annual average growth rate of 2.6%.

Midas Gold Corp. (MAX: TSX) today reported that the 2011 exploration program at its Golden Meadows Project, Valley County, Idaho, has commenced.

Romarco Mineals Inc. (TSX:R) has drilled its best hole since Horseshoe on the Haile property identifying a newly designated zone ("Mustang") as a result of its ongoing drill program at its Haile Gold Mine project in South Carolina. Image of the Haile gold project by Romarco Minerals

Freeport-McMoRan reported a doubling of profits at $1.4 billion in the second quarter, but the blow-out results did not satisfy investors who shaved more than 1.5% off the stock amid record gold prices and a positive day on the markets. The company said labour action at its Grasberg mine – the globe's largest copper-gold mine – hurt output. During the eight-day strike in July, the company lost about 35 million pounds of copper production and 60 thousand ounces of gold production which could hurt its next set of results.

Cliffs Natural Resources’ plans to restart coal mining operations at its Pinnacle coal mine in West Virginia after a major setback with regulatory agencies turning down its remediation plan to address the carbon monoxide detected in the mine. The company had to shut down operations at the underground mine in late May after high levels of the poisonous gas were detected.