Gran Colombia signs LOI to spin off Venezuela project

Once tinted by drug cartels and civil war, Colombia is now one of Latin America’s fastest growing markets and, according to the World Bank, the most secure country in the region in which to do business. Since yesterday, the country also has a new national mining agency, which is already looking for foreign investments to expand existing production and explore areas where rich deposits of key resources are suspected.

Brazilian mining giant Vale (NYSE:VALE) announced the country's Superior Court of Justice ruled in favour of the federal tax authority in its appeal against an injunction granted in March suspending payment of taxes on overseas profits by the company.

Mine access roads blockaded by contractors at BHP Billiton's Escondida mine have been re-opened.

Gold miners were caught in an ugly slide in the S&P/TSX Composite Index today, which shed 215 points in reaction to another poor economic report coming out of the US.

Contract workers blocked some roads to Chile's Escondida copper mine, the world's largest, on Thursday in a bonus dispute, although production operations weren't halted

Brazilian investment in mining is about to shatter a five-year record.

Major copper producer Grupo Mexico reported a 35% jump in first-quarter profit, helped in part by higher mine production numbers.

Releasing the results of a new engineering study failed to move the markets in a positive direction today for Orko Silver (TSX-V:OK), although the resource-heavy Toronto exchanges were also in the red.

Colombia’s leading coal producers are increasing investments dramatically to improve and expand their ports, in what is considered a key move for rising coal production in the country to 120 million tons within by 2014.