Japan’s Mitsui injects $30m into Sigma’s lithium project in Brazil

VANCOUVER, CANADA--(Marketwire - Aug. 31, 2011) - Lithium One Inc. (the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:LI), is pleased to report the delineation of a new zone (the "North Basin") containing thick halite sequences hosting high grade lithium and potassium brine at the Sal de Vida Project at Salar del Hombre Muerto, Argentina. The five core holes in this new discovery report grades averaging 852 mg/L lithium and 10,181 mg/L potassium within the first 55 metres from surface, with no cut-offs applied. The 50 km² North Basin is adjacent to, but geologically separated from, the 170 km² Central Basin where the Company has previously defined an inferred resource¹ of 5.4 million tonnes Lithium Carbonate equivalent and 21 million tonnes potassium chloride equivalent (1,470M m³ at 695 mg/L Li and 7590 mg/L K).

Potassio do Brasil, partly owned by Canadian merchant bank Forbes and Manhattan, is seeking to renew negotiations with Brazil's government over rights to a potash reserve in the Amazon currently held by state oil company Petrobras adjacent to what it called a 'world class' potash discovery last week. The Potassio do Brasil mine will take $4 billion to develop and follows news earlier this month from Toronto-listed Verde Potash which announced a 1.1 billion tonne resource at its Amazon Cerrado Verde project that is suitable for open pit mining. The discoveries come as Brazil readies a new mining royalty regime – in certain instances doubling the rate – which would be managed by government decree. Mining investment in the world's fifth largest economy is also predicted to accelerate to $68.5 billion through 2015.

MOUNT PEARL, NEWFOUNDLAND--(Marketwire - Aug. 30, 2011) - Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. ("Cornerstone") (TSX VENTURE:CGP) (FRANKFURT:GWN) (BERLIN:GWN) (PINK SHEETS:CTNXF) announced today preliminary results for the ongoing exploration program at the La Fortuna copper-silver project located in the Valparaíso Region of central Chile, approximately 100 km north of Santiago.

Peru's government and miners are discussing the implementation of at least two different rate scales for a new royalty payment system

Four miners were killed when a coal mine collapsed in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila on Friday, a senior government official said. Labor Minister Javier Lozano said in a Twitter message the fourth body was recovered late on Friday and an extraordinary inspection of the mine was underway.

Four miners have been killed in an explosion that caved in part of a coal mine in the northern Mexico border state of Coahuila.

Ollanta Humala, President-elect of Peru, fulfilled a campaign promise Thursday in announcing his government's intention to hit mining companies with higher royalty taxes. Humala, who was elected in July, campaigned on a promise to tax mining company profits and distribute them to the poor — a development that had investors and mining company CEOs running for cover in a country that is the world's second largest producer of copper and the sixth biggest gold miner. Companies now pay between 1% and 3% in royalties.

Reuters reports 50,000 protesters battled police in Chile's capital on Thursday, the second day of a two-day strike against unpopular President Sebastian Pinera. A recent poll put the right-wing leader's approval rating at only 26%, below even that of dictator General Pinochet, who ruled the country for 17 years from 1973. The protests follows recent strikes in the copper sector over pay and a campaign against a massive coal mine on an island in Patagonia amid accusations that billionaire Pinera’s shareholding in the developer, Copec, constitutes a serious conflict of interest.

One of the largest mining companies operating in northern Peru says that a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Peru Wednesday didn't interrupt operations. Roque Benavides, chief executive of precious metals mining company Compania de Minas Buenaventura SA (BVN, BUENAVC1.Vl), said in an email message he wasn't aware of any damage from the earthquake on its operations in northern Peru.