Columbus Gold makes high-grade discovery in French Guiana

Brazil’s mining giant Vale (NYSE: VALE) will temporarily halt operations at its São Luís and Tubarão I and II pellet plants starting October 8 and November 13 respectively.

Australia-based Mariana Resources (LON:MARL) (TSX:MRY) , an exploration and development company focused in southern Argentina and Chile, announced Thursday it signed a Letter of Intent ("LOI") with Canadian junior Condor Resources to explore a gold deposit in northern Peru.

A Chilean appeals court has accepted a request for an injunction against Canada’s Barrick Gold (NYSE, TSX: ABX) and its Pascua Lama project, filed by a group of northern natives in conjunction with the local government’s environmental evaluation committee.

Chile's deputy mining minister, Pablo Wagner, resigned a day after the government decided to revoke the lithium mining concession awarded to a local company last week, acknowledging problems with the tender process.

The rival groups of Bolivian miners fighting over control of the Andean silver, tin and zinc Colquiri mine, reached an agreement over the weekend that was qualified as “historic” by Government Minister Carlos Romero.

The Spanish may not have found El Dorado, the city of gold, but they certainly hit the jackpot when they landed in what is today the Bolivian city of Potosi, home to “Cerro Rico” or Rich Mountain, one of the largest silver deposit ever known in history. But experts are warning the place, which still hosts silver mining, is about to collapse.

Toyota, one of the leading automakers in the world, bought this week a 25% stake in Salar de Olaroz lithium and potassium project in Argentina to ensure supply for it growing electric cars division.

Uranium exploration and production is on a fast track in Latin American, as investors begin to realize that a few small-cap companies are controlling deposits that could be worth billions of dollars.

Colombia's booming mining and oil industries are likely to be the centre of terrorist attacks over the coming months as soldiers and guerrillas fight on the battlefield, while their delegations hold peace talks to end the country's half-century-old conflict.