De Beers sales hint diamond market has bottomed out

Most of them have been after existing operations and companies, rather than trying to build mines from scratch.

Output rose 16% to 3.7 million carats, which puts Petra on track to hit its long term annual target of 5 million carats in 2018, a year earlier than planned.

Gold and silver prices ran out of momentum during the first week of July and have been drifting lower ever since.

Faced with declining domestic production, China's top copper company — Minmetals — said earlier this year that the "only solution” was going overseas, and many are following its steps.

The world’s third-biggest gold miner said its net earnings will also benefit from weaker operating currencies in South Africa, Brazil, Australia and Argentina.

It's actually made of 494g of silver and just 6g of the precious yellow metal.

Gold has been trading inversely to equities – and, consequently, the yellow metal stands to gain much when Wall Street tumbles, an outcome that seems increasingly likely as world stock markets edge higher.

It produced 86.82 million tonnes of iron ore in the April-to-June period, down 2.8% from a year earlier.

The deal, Komatsu's biggest-ever acquisition, is set to boost its clout in the mining industry.