The bank said in a brief statement it is supporting the government so it can develop mining in the country's northeastern mountains, according to the Associated Press.

Two mining companies began testing in the area for gold, copper and silver last year and their results indicate metals could be worth $20 billion.

When the legislation might be passed is unclear. While the Haitian prime minister said last fall the government hoped to pass a new mining law in six months, the country's parliament is controlled by representatives who are opposed to mining. Further, the senate has empty seats and no  elections have been scheduled.

The new mining law would set out royalties for the government — between 9% and 12% — as well as environmental protection.

Image: George Allen Penton / Shutterstock.com

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Like gold, silver has been getting hammered. Since the start of year, spot silver has dropped by one-quarter. It is currently trading at $22.53 an ounce.

The Silver Squeeze – An infographic by the team at The Silver Squeeze Free Infographic

Creative Commons cat picture by ansik

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The country, which has untapped gold, silver and copper deposits,  hopes to reduce its reliance on oil exports.

Highlights are a provision that will delay a windfall tax until a company's investments are recovered. The other will set a ceiling on royalties. Given the president's recent electoral win, the reforms are expected to pass.

The rules are meant to hurry up the start of the Kinross Gold's $1.3 billion Fruta del Norte gold project.

"We’ve sent a bill labelled as urgent … it contains the reforms to the mining law. Our mining law is very good, but we made some mistakes and it was too strong in some aspects and there were not as many investments as we expected," said Correa, according to a report by Reuters.

Creative Commons image by GobernacionImbabura

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According to a statement from May 15, the falling price of gold was an opportunity to eliminate the hedge  that were associated with its Mesquite mine. The company says that 110,000 ounces of future production can now be sold at the prevailing spot gold price.

The news didn't move the stock, which down along with the rest of the gold miners. New Gold has dropped 13.37% since May 13 to $6.47 today.  The 52-week range is $6.25 to $12.84. The company was recently downgraded by The Street from a buy to a hold due to its ". . . disappointing performance in the stock itself and disappointing return on equity."

New Gold is an intermediate mining company running the New Afton Mine in Canada; the Cerro San Pedro Mine in Mexico; the Mesquite Mine in the United States; and the Peak Mines in Australia.

Here is the company's statement from May 15:

VANCOUVER, May 15, 2013 /CNW/ - New Gold Inc. ("New Gold") (TSX and NYSE MKT:NGD) today announces that the company has eliminated its legacy gold hedges that were associated with the 2008 project financing put in place to develop the Mesquite mine. As a result of Mesquite's successful start-up, the company repaid the loan in 2010, four years ahead of schedule. With the elimination of the hedges, New Gold's gold production and gold resource base now have full leverage to the gold price.

"Our constructive view on the gold price has led us to unwind the gold hedges," stated Randall Oliphant , Executive Chairman. "We believe the recent pullback in the gold price has provided us with a window to be opportunistic in eliminating the hedges. We look forward to the balance of 2013 and full year 2014 earnings and cash flow benefitting meaningfully as a result."

By unwinding the hedges, New Gold has removed the requirement to deliver 5,500 ounces of gold monthly at a fixed price of $801 per ounce from May 2013 through the end of 2014. In total, an additional 110,000 ounces of future production can now be sold at the prevailing spot gold price rather than the contract price of $801 per ounce. In total, the company paid $65.7 million to eliminate the gold hedges. The transaction was executed at an average spot price of$1,396 per ounce.

New Gold continues to have a strong balance sheet with significant financial flexibility and anticipates that the elimination of the hedges should result in even more robust earnings and cash flow going forward.

Creative Commons image by uair01

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The trip – the first of its kind – was full of exciting moments.

The explorers crossed paths with polar bears, numerous seals, and a huddle of mustachioed walruses.

Aurora borealis performed for the travelers, lighting up "the entire sky," according to expedition leader Vassili Ielaguine.

"Heaven helped" the men one day when, before their eyes, ice floes closed a wide chasm that would have otherwise prompted a long detour. Ielaguine said that they may well have run out of fuel.

Conflicting territorial claims over the Arctic and its immense natural resource wealth were left aside as the Russians were received warmly upon arrival in Resolute Bay.

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The five-year, $5.1 million grant is the largest award of its kind ever made by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Led by Ontario's Laurentian University, University of Ottawa and Barrick Gold Corp. (TSE, NYSE: ABX), the "Footprints" project focuses on research and development for tools to find deeply buried or remote ore deposits by following the ore trace elements, a.k.a. footprints.

The mining firms have pledged $2.8 million in cash and $3.9 miilion in kind towards the project through the Canada Mining Innovation Council.

Image: farbled / Shutterstock.com

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Spot gold dropped 1.98% to $1,398 per ounce, a 30-day low. Silver is at $22.67 an ounce, having lost 4.01%.

Gold miners fell. Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX) was down 2.83% to $19.92. The company's 52-week low is $17.15.

Goldcorp (NYSE:GG) declined 3.65% to $27.65, just above its 52-week low of $27.11.

Tough gold prices were bad for the Canadian markets. The S&P/TSX Composite index was down 0.72% to 12,486.18.

The Dow Jones opened down but recovered by mid-morning to 15,208.51, just 0.04% off yesterday's close. The S&P 500 also gained traction at 1,649.01.

The markets may be betting on some stimulus after weak manufacturing numbers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its producer price index, which measures how much various industries are able to charge for their wares. The PPI showed a sharp overall decrease of 0.7 percent in April.

Notable in the numbers was the reversal for miners.

In April prices for commodities less energy decreased 2.8 percent. Accounting for more than one-third of the monthly decline in April, nonferrous metals prices moved down 2.6 percent.

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The import surge has been driven by gold purchases in spite of the Indian government's recent bullion import taxes.

Indian "gold and silver imports grew by 138% in April on a year-on-year basis, from $3.1 billion last year to $7.5 billion this year, led by falling prices and festival demand," reported the Economic Times Tuesday.

Sources: The Wall Street Journal; The Economic Times

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The US dollar was higher after data showed retail sales coming in higher than expected. According to the US Commerce Department seasonally adjusted retail sales were up 0.1% in April. Economists at Marketwatch had been expecting a decline.

Economic data out of China was mixed. While analysts had been expecting industrial production to come in at 9.5%, official data showed April data at 9.3% higher from the same time last year. Retail sales were up 12.8% over last April.

The US dollar hit 101.30 yen, a four-year high. Japan is undergoing aggressive monetary easing under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Markets started in the red. As of mid-morning eastern time, the Dow Jones was down 0.36% to 15,064.27 and the S&P 500 was also down 0.39% to 1,627.88. The S&P TSX was down 0.41% to 12,538.

Image by clurr

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Minerals Make Manufacturing

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The value of the mining sector was close to US$82 billion out of US$1.367 trillion in 2012. Only 2-3% of the total Australian labour force is employed directly in mining and mining related services.

During the last couple of decades, Australian mining booms have caused an increase in immigration to Australia. This trend ended in mid-2012 when the Australian mining industry started to downsize in some sections.

However, the large amount of discovered mineral resources around the country and the high ranking in terms of production proves that the mining industry in Australia is still one of the largest mining industries in the world.

Australia ranks in the top three for global resources of bauxite, copper, diamond, gold, iron ore, lithium, lead, mineral sands, nickel, silver, tantalum, uranium and zinc.

The following table illustrates Australia’s production and resource of major mineral commodities compared to the world.

Australian’s Economic Demonstrated Resources (EDR) and Production of Major Minerals and World Figures

The two following graphs demonstrates economic resource base and mine production for iron ore and base metals.

R2Mining and CostMine provide: The Australian Metal Cost Guide (AMCG) and Australian Coal Cost Guide (ACCG). They include information on mining cost models, labour costs, mining cost indices, equipment capital costs, supplies, mining taxes, electric power, natural gas, transportation and smelting.

These guides can be purchased from R2Mining or CostMine. Contact us: +61 (7) 3365-5866 or info@r2mining.com.

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The new scheme has two parts. First, a minimum royalty will be applied to all mining companies, regardless of earned profits or not, based on their mined output. Second, a progressive mining tax will also be calculated, based on the profit margin. Companies must pay the higher of the two amounts.

The new tax will generate up to $200 million in 2015 for the province, according to the Globe and Mail. In the next dozen years, cumulative revenues could be up to $1.8 billion.

The Quebec Mining Association said it wasn't a good time to change the rules and some companies may end up delaying their projects.

Canadian-based gold producer Agnico-Eagle Mines, which has three mines in Quebec, told Reuters the overall impact on its operations appeared to be minor. The firm also said it hoped the new plan would restore stability and investor confidence in the industry for the long-term.

Image courtesy Agnico-Eagle

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The goal is to make this information intuitive and visual to the average investor.

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At the outset of what was then a merger negotiation 15 months ago, Davis was put forward as the leader of the combined group, but in a deal with the Qatari sovereign wealth fund to save the deal from collapse, Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg secured the top post for himself.

Davis is expected to stay on for a few months, but FT.com reports he has hired Goldman Sachs to help him raise a new fund that will buy stakes in mining assets.

55-year old 'Big Mick' built Xstrata over a decade from a company with 2,500 employees to a mining powerhouse with 70,000 workers in 20 countries through a series of billion dollar deals.

Davis should also be able assemble a crack team in short order. A number of senior execs from Xstrata are also heading for the door post merger after their $240 million golden handcuffs proposal was voted down.

The timing for Davis couldn't be sweeter.

Most – make that almost all – mining company valuations have taken a beating over the past year and should Davis go for a blockbuster takeover right away he would find a sympathetic ears among shareholders (and many boards).

He could also cobble together assets from the vast number that's available at the moment  – there's hardly a major mining firm that has not embarked on an divestment programme in efforts to rein in runaway costs.

Rio Tinto's new CEO has put in place a programme to cut at least $5 billion from its operations around the world, while BHP's sale of Pinto Valley copper mine in the US to Capstone Mining last week has brought its divestitures to $5 billion.

Distressed assets are also available from companies like Ukrainian iron ore miner Ferrexpo and London-listed ENRC among others for much reduced prices.

The major's diamond businesses have long been on the market, but gems and the gold sector – where the real bargains are at the moment – are probably not natural areas of expansion for Davis.

There are also a number of stalled or struggling projects like Vale's Argentinian potash project, Vale and Rio Tinto's Simandou iron in West Africa and coal projects in Mozambique which could prove attractive for those with strong stomachs.

China's on a $40bn+ mining acquisition spree around the world that has not gone quite as well as it should and someone with the dealmaking chops and execution ability of Davis could be worth a lot to China.

Davis were seen in a number of roles in the mining world particularly as the top companies started to clean house.

But in the end none of the prestigious positions that became available went his way (or more likely he wasn't interested) – Anglo American, BHP and Rio Tinto all opted for safe insider appointments.

Glasenberg and Davis cut their teeth in the industry working as a coal traders in Johannesburg during the 1980s, became close partners, but after the bitter takeover fight are said to be no longer speaking.

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With "everything beaten down across the sector," Laurence Roulston calls on investors to differentiate between junior miners with assets, cash and value-adding management teams and those without, if they want to enjoy great future returns.

Roulston, an editor and geologist with 25 years in the resource industry, sat down last week with Scott Gibson of Kitco Gibson Capital to discuss present opportunities and trends amid the junior market destruction.

"What has happened over the last number of weeks…has been absolutely horrifying."

"I've never seen this kind of destruction."

"Longer term, of course, it's a blip that we're going to look back on…but we need to get through this time, it's brutal."

Roulston is a proponent of the bifurcation theory, which sees the junior miners split into two distinct groups: the undervalued and the overvalued. Even companies trading at a penny can be overvalued, says Roulston, if they are without real assets and strong management.

But he says there are "great assets out there trading for absolutely nothing," and the smart money – increasingly from private equity and Asian investors – is already finding its way into those companies with assets and management capable of producing cash flow in short order.

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