Canadian studies endorsing fracking highly flawed — critics

RIA Novosti reports that Norilsk Nickel has sold 8.06 percent of its shares to two offshore companies, Delmonico Group and Crelios Investment, for over $2.77 billion, the company said in documents obtained by RIA Novosti on Monday.

As the State Department weighs approving an oil pipeline stretching from Canada to Texas, experts are divided on whether the Keystone XL project would worsen global warming.

Beijing has issued a veiled threat to Australia's long-term economic future. It has vowed to break the power of the big mining companies by sourcing 50 per cent of its iron ore imports from Chinese-invested companies.

The value of mergers and acquisitions in the mining sector more than doubled to $96.3 billion in the first six months of the year and could top $200 billion for the whole of 2011 says a new research report. Canadian companies – both as acquirers and as the targets of buyers – dominated corporate finance activity in the first half shaking on more than a deal a day and at 325 deals accounting for almost two-thirds of all the metals and minerals transactions carried out around the world.

Indian Express reports Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, currently holidaying in Mauritius, is among a slew of politicians, many of them from the BJP party, set to be named in a damning 8,000-page report on the illegal plunder of the Indian state’s iron ore resources over a decade. The report from the Lokayukta, an anti-corruption ombudsman organization, may lead to so called President's rule in Karnataka when a state legislature is dissolved or suspended and the state is placed under direct federal governance and is proving to be a huge embarrassment to the BJP leadership.

Financial Post reports Global X Uranium ETF (NYSE:URA) says that the uranium sector is showing some signs of improvement after the Japanese nuclear incident.

Grizzly Discoveries Inc. announced on Monday it has applied for a new metallic and industrial mineral permit in Alberta along the Saskatchewan border covering approximately 4,672 hectares to add to its existing land holdings of more than 2.4 million acres for its Alberta Potash Project. Stocks in the micro-cap company was steady at 70c on Monday following the news and is worth more than double what it was at the start of 2011. Apart from potash Grizzly is exploring for gold and base metals in British Columbia and diamonds in Alberta.

Namibia's Ministry of Environment and Tourism has granted environmental approval for the linear infrastructure for the proposed Husab uranium project to Extract Resources subsidiary Swakop Uranium. The approval, covering access roads, electricity, telecommunications and water supply, is the final environmental approval needed for the project. The project mining area received environmental approval in January. Extract is now waiting to receive a mining licence from the Ministry of Mines, according to managing director Jonathan Leslie.

Indonesia’s huge reserves of thermal coal — used for power plants — are being aggressively targeted by energy-hungry China and India. The demand, combined with high commodities prices, is driving a resources boom in remote Indonesian provinces, and creating billions of dollars in personal wealth.