Chuquicamata strike to dent Chile’s copper output

Newmont Mining announced on Wednesday protesters are now allowing access to the Yanacocha gold mine in northern Peru. A local paper reported protesters decided to remove roadblocks following an agreement with the mines ministry and regional authorities. Newmont on Monday was forced to shut down operations at Yanacocha, South America's largest gold mines with annual output of 1.5 million ounces. Newmont and local partner Buenaventura are also advancing a $4.8 billion project to expand the mine which would be the largest investment ever in Peru.

Microcap Canadian explorer Apogee Silver jumped 10% on Wednesday after announcing indicated silver resources at its Pulacayo Deposit in southwestern Bolivia had increased 133%. More than seven times the usual number of shares changed hands on Wednesday bringing the firm's market cap on the Toronto Venture exchange to just under $50 million. Apogee said the Pulacayo silver-lead-zinc deposit has 29.34 million ounces of indicated silver resource and 26.24 million ounces of inferred silver resource.

("Carpathian" or the "Corporation") wishes to report that it has been advised of a decision by COPAM, one of the Brazilian environmental authorities having jurisdiction over its RDM gold project situated in Minas Gerais State, Brazil (the "Project"), to attach a condition to the recently granted Ad Referendum License to Install ("AR LI") to the effect that the Corporation's wholly owned subsidiary, Mineração Riacho dos Machados Ltda. ("MRDM"), should not start any installation work on the Project until the AR LI is ratified by COPAM, pending their further review of technical documents.

Bloomberg reports Grupo Mexico must return $1.3 billion to Southern Copper Corp. for forcing the unit to overpay for Minera México, a Delaware judge ruled. The court found that the terms of the 2005 merger was unfair to Southern Copper which mines copper and silver in Peru and Mexico. The court determined that Minera Mexico, at the time the second richest copper miner after Chile's Codelco, was only worth $2.43 billion and not the $3.75 billion Southern Copper paid.

IAMGOLD Corporation, which produces nearly one million ounces of gold each year, is looking is looking for projects capable of 150,000/oz of gold per year and has two million oz of reserves. The company made the announcement during a corporate presentation in October. Bloomberg reported that the company is looking for transactions in the range of $300 million to $500 million.

Mining M&A is heating up with more takeover rumours, says The Australian, quoting a report from UK-based newspaper The Sunday Times. The Times reported that BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP), the world's largest miner, is close to launching a $1.3 billion bid for Ferrous Resources, a Brazilian iron ore producer controlled by a number of international hedge funds including Philip Falcone's Harbinger Capital. According to The Australian, Ferrous is valued at some $3.9 billion, with the company "needing to spend about $5bn developing its Viga mine in Minas Gerais state in Brazil, which would include a 400km slurry pipe to carry the ore to its own port at Presidente Kennedy in nearby Espirito Santo state."

Canadian-based exploration and development company Colossus Minerals was trading lower in a lacklustre Toronto market on Friday after announcing it had raised $75 million in a bought deal. Colossus is active the mineral-rich Carajas region of Para State, Brazil where it is advancing the Serra Pelada project into production. Billed as one of the highest grade gold and platinum group metals deposits in the world, the area was host to the largest precious metals rush in Latin American history from 1980 to 1986.

Quadra FNX Mining Ltd. ("Quadra FNX" or the "Company") (TSX:QUX) announces that consolidated payable production for the three months ended September 30 increased 9% compared to Q2 2011 and 30% compared to Q1 2011 and totaled 60 million pounds of copper, 26 thousand ounces of total precious metals ("TPMs") and 3 million pounds of nickel. Paul Blythe, President & CEO comments; "This is our strongest quarter since 2009, driven by Robinson and continuing strong performance from our Sudbury operations. We are seeing continuing and significant improvements in production at Robinson. The various measures that we have taken are delivering increased flexibility and productivity.

The combination of White Tiger Gold (CVE:WTG) and Century Mining received approval on Wednesday from the Government of Canada under the Investment Canada Act. Century Mining will become an indirect subsidiary of White Tiger. "We appreciate the approval given by the Government of Canada. We are now one step closer to creating a larger, more diversified gold mining company with multiple properties in various stages of production and development in Canada, Russia, and Peru" said Daniel Major, President and Chief Executive Officer of Century and Dr. Geoffrey Cowley, Chief Executive Officer of White Tiger in a joint statement.