Mining and Exploration

Rio Tinto has announced a C$10 million investment over five years to create a center for underground mine construction in Canada.

The Rio Tinto Centre for Underground Mine Construction will be based at the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) in Sudbury, Ontario, and will focus on innovative rapid mine construction and ground control for mining at depth.

Sotkamo Silver is in the process of breathing life into the Taivaljarvi silver mine project. CEO Dr Timo Lindborg talks to Gay Sutton about building a sound investor base and the future development of the company.

Just a week after declaring record results for its second quarter, Western Coal is back in the news after an approach from Walter Energy, Inc, a US producer and exporter of hard coking coal for the global steel industry, about a possible “strategic business combination.”

The combination proposal contemplates a plan of arrangement transaction whereby Western shareholders would receive a mixture of cash and Walter shares valued at $11.50 per Western share.

North America might be reluctant to end its love affair with gasoline, but a new Canadian venture is ready for when it inevitably happens, as Alan Swaby learns.

Lithium, apparently, is one of the most abundant minerals on earth. It has a role to play in the manufacture of ceramics and glass as a flux, in the foundry business as a casting aid, and as the core ingredient of lithium grease. But before the advent of mobile phones and laptop computers, not one in a hundred people would have heard of it.

Gold prices remain at high levels, which is great news for mining companies. But mines are fundamentally a depleting resource and as reserves decline at one mine, another must be found to take its place. Andrew Cormier at Northgate Minerals Corporation tells Andrew Pelis how his company has dealt with the forthcoming closure of its flagship operation, the Kemess South Mine in British Columbia, and is building a new cornerstone, the Young-Davidson Mine in northern Ontario.

North American Gem is setting its sights on becoming a major coal mining presence in Kentucky. The path to that door leads through a rare type of coal that is used in the production of silicon chips and solar panels, as Keith Regan learns.

Nyrstar has long been one of the world's top zinc smelters, but found itself facing the prospect of future supply and margin pressures. That prompted a move upstream into direct zinc ore mining, a process that Keith Regan learns also involves rebuilding the trust of employees, communities, partners and regulators.

Global gold consumption for 2010 will be higher than 2009 as a result of increasing demand in India and China, sustained global demand for gold investment, and growth in jewelry and industrial demand, according to the World Gold Council.

According to the WGC's Gold Demand Trends report for Q3 2010, published today, demand for gold in the final quarter of 2010 will be driven by the following factors:

Irish oil and gas company Providence Resources has announced new interpretations of old data that suggest that a field off the west coat of Ireland contains as much as 200 million barrels of oil.

Providence’s Spanish Point project is located around 170 kilometres off the west coast of Ireland in the Porcupine Basin. Drilling, at a depth of 400 metres, is expected to begin in 2012, with oil and gas potentially flowing by late 2014 or 2015.

London-listed mining group Vedanta Resources has reported an 83 per cent jump in its first-half profits, aided by higher metals prices.

Pre-tax profits rose to $1.1 billion (approximately £685 million) from $605 million during the same period last year, on revenues of $4.6 billion (approx. £2.9 billion), which rose by 54 per cent.

Vedanta said it saw record production of zinc-lead, aluminium, iron ore and silver. Emerging markets continued to drive the global economy, resulting in price rises across most commodities, the company said.