The collapse of commodities in one simple chart

While the Obama Administration extended its emergency ban on new mining claims around the Grand Canyon only until December 20, 2011, statements made by federal officials at a press conference at Mather Point in the Grand Canyon National Park Monday indicate the ban will probably be permanent. Although U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar repeatedly stressed that mining projects currently in the regulatory pipeline remain alive and viable, fears of possible contamination of the Grand Canyon watershed were repeatedly stressed by federal officials speaking during the news conference. Image of Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar at the Statue of Liberty is from Wikipedia.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar is expected to announce this morning at 10 a.m. PDT the Obama Administration's decision regarding the extension of a 1-million acre mining ban around the Grand Canyon for 20 years. In 2009 Salazar ordered a two-year time-out from all new mining claims in the Arizona Strip near the Grand Canyon.

Energia Minerals Limited (ASX: EMX) notes that a referendum was held in Italy on the 12th and 13th of June 2011 to decide whether to remove laws passed last year to restart a domestic nuclear energy program in the country. The result of the referendum was that Italian citizens have voted to remove the laws and, accordingly, remove the framework to potentially develop nuclear energy production facilities in Italian territory.

Uranium Energy announced that it has secured its first multi-year uranium sales contract. The sales contract provides for the delivery of 300,000 pounds of U3O8 over a period of three years starting in August 2011 from its Hobson processing facility, with the price to be based on published market price indicators at the time of delivery.

About 100 men in their 20s and 30s, filled a conference room at a Dublin hotel last week to hear a migration agent describe the personal fortunes waiting to be made a world away in the booming mining towns of the Australian outback. With unemployment running at close to 15 percent in Ireland, and local wages a fraction of those now on offer in Australia, it appeared to be an easy sell.

Germany will need more coal plants if it is to phase out nuclear power, Chancellor Angela Merkel said. "If we want to quickly get out of nuclear power and into renewable energy, we need fossil-fuel power plants.

Australia said the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan would not curb the world's appetite for uranium and predicted its exports will continue to rise as its develops more mines. Spending on exploration in Australia to find more uranium is expected to rise by more than third this year, Australia's minister for mines, Martin Ferguson, said in a speech to geologists on Thursday.

CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. (TSXV: CVV)  ("CanAlaska" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that its common shares will be listed and commence trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") within the next two weeks.  The company's current trading symbol, CVV, will remain unchanged. "This graduation to the senior TSX board represents another milestone in the development of CanAlaska Uranium," said Mr. Peter Dasler, President & CEO.

The full cost of the Fukushima nuclear disaster is yet to be established but its impact on the nuclear sector as a whole may not be as bad as was first thought - even with the loss of Germany as an active participant.