Newmont halts all operations in Indonesia, declares force majeure

Workers at BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP)’s Escondida copper mine, the world’s biggest, began striking as coal miners at the company’s Australian operations prepared to escalate industrial action. The strike by all union members at the northern Chilean mine began at 8 p.m. New York time yesterday with the changing of a shift and will run through to 8 p.m. today, which may lead to about 3,000 metric tons of lost copper production, union leader Jose Vidal said by telephone. Image of BHP's Escondida mine is by BHP Billiton.

Kalgoorlie Mining Company ( ASX: KMC ) has been granted de-watering approval for the Bullant Gold Mine from the Department of Environment and Conservation.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. is studying further expansion of mining and milling operations at Morenci, the company said today as it announced that its second-quarter profit doubled.

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.