It is with great sadness that we advise that our former Managing Director, Mr. Tony Kinnane, passed away Saturday night at his home in Brisbane. Tony joined Runge Limited in 1986 as Operations Manager and in 1991 was appointed Managing Director, a position he held for 20 years.

Gold futures added to record levels set earlier on Tuesday as Europe finance ministers consider allowing Greece to default on some of its debt, Italy's borrowing costs soar and US Federal Reserve minutes indicate the possibility of additional financial stimulus. Gold is considered a hedge against inflation and further quantitative easing could flood financial markets with cheap money as it did in the previous round – QE2 – when US monetary authorities injected some $600bn to drive down interest rates. Gold for August delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange was trading at $1,568.40 an ounce in late trade after settling at a record $1,562.30 an ounce earlier.

Vancouver's GGL Resources Corp. announced on Tuesday Rio Tinto Exploration Canada Inc. (formerly, Kennecott Canada Exploration Inc.) has notified GGL that it is planning to budget approximately $650,000 for diamond exploration on the CH Project claims. The CH Project Area is located some 250 kilometers north of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories (NT) of Canada.  The Property lies within an area measuring 60 km east-west by 80 km north-south, and begins 30 km west of the Diavik Diamond Mine.

Stocks of Allana Potash Corp was trading slightly up at midday on Thursday after the company announced it had intersected strong potash mineralization in an area not previously drilled at its 160 square km Dallol project in Ethopia. Listed on the TSX-Venture exchange Allana's East Africa project has the backing of the World Bank and most of the assets there are still being quantified. The value of the company has doubled in 2011 and investors who bought the stock in July last year would have enjoyed a four-fold return.

Stocks in Labrador Iron Mines Holdings ended up 5% in Toronto on Thursday after reporting that on June 29, 2011 the first loaded iron ore train departed Silver Yards for the Port of Sept-Iles travelling over the TSH and QNS&L railways. This historic event is the first commercial iron ore train from the Schefferville area in almost 30 years. Labrador is developing twenty direct shipping iron ore deposits in western Labrador and north-eastern Quebec. LIM’s properties are part of the historic Schefferville area iron ore district where mining of adjacent deposits was previously carried out by the Iron Ore Company of Canada from 1954 to 1982.

Goliath Gold, a thinly traded African exploration company this week reported a deepening loss for the year to end-March as it pushes ahead with drilling programmes at its Johannesburg East Rand assets. Gold One spun out its deeper assets into Goliath, which was formerly White Water Resources, in a R262m ($35m) deal that will give Gold One 71% of the new company.

The New York Times reported on the statue in August 2009: Jesus Christ looms over Rio de Janeiro, a quartet of American […]

The Brazilian mining company Vale is to enter into a partnership with the Portuguese company SGC Energia to build an industrial unit to convert coal into liquid fuel in Moatize district, in the central Mozambican province of Tete. Vale estimates a liquefied fuel processing plant could produce 300 million litres of fuel a year, of which about half would be used by Vale in Mozambique. The rest would be sold on the domestic fuel market.

Western Potash Corp. announced on Tuesday that it has completed the purchase of a large parcel of surface lands,  advancing the development of the plant site facility for its Milestone potash solution mining project in southern Saskatchewan. The land acquisition program has now successfully secured over 2,550 acres at the Company’s preferred plant site location.  Securing the plant site location is an important aspect of the Milestone feasibility process as the environmental and regulatory approval processes and project schedules are dependent on it.

Dow Jones reports a Khazakhstan mining and metals group says it's forging ahead with plans to build a $2 billion iron ore mine in northeast Brazil despite major logistical and environmental obstacles, while speculation about a takeover-bid swirls. The Pedra de Ferro iron ore project is already four years behind schedule, and the company may miss the 2014 start-up date as it is still waiting for environmental licenses to build a port from which to ship the iron ore, and for Brazil's federal government to build a railroad.