Zimbabwe’s state-controlled Herald newspaper reported on Thursday the Harare government is investigating De Beers over claims it smuggled out gems worth "hundreds of millions of dollars" from the controversial Chiadzwa fields. De Beers spent eight years exploring the fields, but later claimed it had failed to find any meaningful deposits according to Zimabwe's deputy mines minister. Diamonds were found by villagers in Chiadzwa in 2006, leading to a frenzied diamond rush that was eventually crushed by the army. Zimbabwe's diamonds are the subject of an international ban although most industry watchers believe it is being widely flouted.

Globes reports Israel Chemicals, a unit, ICL Fertilizers, will sell potash to its Chinese customers at $470 a ton, $70 a ton higher than prices to China during the first half of 2011. Under the terms of the current contract, 500,000 tons will be delivered in the second half of 2011 for $235 million. ICL reported that since 2010, it has broadened its customer base in China, and sells potash directly to Chinese fertilizer producers and distributors. ICL, which is controlled by Israel Corp, is the world's sixth-largest producer of potash.

Pacific Wildcat Resources announced the initial NI 43-101 compliant independent Niobium mineral resource estimate report for the Mrima Hill Niobium and Rare Earth Project in Kenya. The Niobium mineral resource estimate is from surface down to a maximum depth of 30 metres with 83% of the mineral resource tonnes being found in the top 20 metres.

Potash will play a huge role in Saskatchewan's predicted economic growth of an average rate of 3.5% over 2011 and 2012, according to the latest economic forecast by Scotiabank. Potash production is expected to climb close to its 2007 peak of 11 million tonnes in 2011, after suffering a dramatic 60% drop during the recession of 2009.

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.

Due to government-announced carbon taxes, the University of Queensland (UQ) is offering free workshops on managing carbon costs, led by academics who understand the issues facing the mining industry in relation to commercial and environmental sustainability, Australian Mining reports.

The workshops include ‘calculating a carbon footprint, calculating carbon costs and savings, and identifying new business opportunities as a result of carbon management strategies’. UniQuest managing director David Henderson explained that the workshops are a response to a growing need for evidence based support.

Clive Cowdery, the Resolution Ltd. founder who made about $240 million buying and selling insurers, is betting on diamonds after prices rose five times faster than gold this year on surging demand from China and India. Cowdery, 48, is among startup investors in Diamond Capital Ltd.’s $20 million fund that will manage a portfolio of the polished gems valued at as much as $400,000 apiece.

Twenty-eight miners were still trapped underground Thursday while 63 others were rescued after a fire broke out in a coal mine in China's Shandong province Wednesday night, Xinhua reported. A total of 91 people were trapped after an air compression device located in a parking lot 255 metres underground caught fire at 6.45 p.m. Wednesday, a provincial government spokesman said.

Gold's performance has eclipsed that of gold mining stocks this year, but gold equities now are likely to take the upper hand as the flow of cheap US cash slows and miners boast juicy margins and good growth prospects. Gold's status as a quasi-currency and safe haven has helped pushed the price of the metal up about 20 per cent since the start of the year to above $US1,520 an ounce, making it one of the top performing asset classes of 2011.