A strong run-up in Vancouver-based Silvercorp's stock came to a halt on Monday.

Mining junior Northern Iron (ASX:NFE) has suspended exploratory plans due to sharp declines in iron ore prices which have severely affected the sector's other major players.

China's ICBC has announced a reduction in its lending to Australia's resource sector due to concerns that the mining boom is nearing an end.

The halcyon decade that China's coal industry has enjoyed since 2002 market reforms has reached its terminus with a major dive in first half profits this year.

Brad Wall, premier of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, says the negotiation of a nuclear agreement between Canada and China could lead to huge exports of uranium from the prairie province to the PRC. Wall made the comments during an interview with Canada's CBCin Hong Kong during a group visit to China with other Canadian premiers for the purpose of boosting business ties. According to Wall the Canadian prime minister's negotiation of the Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with China could enable Saskatchewan to export $3 billion into what he refers to as the "most robust nuclear power program in the world." Wall extolled the benefits of trade with China for Saskatchewan, saying China's food and energy needs will serve as an immense boon for the province's potash and uranium exports.

For Saskatchewan there's a great importance here. We've seen our exports to China from Saskatchewan triple from 2006. We've moved past Ontario and Quebec in terms of the exports to China specifically. In the first half of this year we're up 103% over the first half of last year and typically our best exporting months come at the back end of the year.

Image courtesy of the Saskatchewan Premier's channel via Youtube

Michael Pento has become feverishly bullish on gold in the wake of Fed chairman Ben Bernanke's announcement of indefinite stimulus spending, predicting that the Fed's actions will propel gold to an "all time high."

A belated rebalancing of the Chinese economy will lead to a collapse in commodities prices by 2015 according one of the West's leading experts on the PRC's economy.

I was confident that the Fed had already begun printing. That seemed quite evident by the overall action in the commodity markets, the dollar, and the fact that stocks were unable to correct in the normal timing band for a daily cycle low.

InformedTrades looks at the economic hole Japan has dug itself, especially since it gave up nuclear energy and started importing energy.