Cash-strapped ex-Soviet republic Belarus is negotiating the sale of its most prized asset, the potash producer Belaruskali, under the terms of a $3bn bail-out loan agreed this month with Russia, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Responsible for one-third of the worlds potash fertiliser production, Belaruskali could be worth as much as $20bn. A frontrunner for a takeover is Russia's top producer Uralkali owned by billionaire Suleiman Kerimov. The combined group would easily push Canada's Potash Corp. from the top producer spot.

Mercator Minerals is pleased to announce that that for the first two months of Q2 2011, the Company produced 7,538,130 pounds of copper and 1,128,674 pounds of molybdenum at its wholly owned Mineral Park mine in Arizona, as compared to total Q2 2011 production guidance for the months of April to June, given on March 8, 2011 of 10,163,548 pounds of copper and 1,033,558 pounds of molybdenum, representing 74% of the guided quarterly copper production and 109% of the guided quarterly molybdenum production during a period of two months of a three month quarter, with a full month of production to come. 

In an open letter contained in an ad published this week in the New York Times, 50 politicians, actors, scientists and public officials urged the Obama Administration extend a 1-million acre mining ban around the Grand Canyon National Park for 20 years. In 2009 U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar issued a federal order calling for a two-year "time-out" from all new mining claims in the Arizona Strip near the Grand Canyon. The lands blocked from new exploration and mining activity includes acreage managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. Image is from Wikipedia and Chensiyuan

Profit margins for the world’s top 40 mining companies are below the historical peaks of 2006 and 2007 as higher costs outweigh […]

The world’s fifth largest copper mine, Chile’s El Teniente, worked at less than half of capacity on Monday as most workers stayed […]

The Israel Diamond Institute (IDI) will present the first Israeli Diamond Pavilion at the June Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair, June […]

Wesgold Minerals has struck an option agreement with a polymetallic property in Colombia. According to Canadian Press, Wesgold has acquired an option to buy up to 51 percent of a property that hosts iron-oxide-copper-gold deposits: The Vancouver-based junior miner says it bought the option for an initial 11 per cent interest in the property, known as the Cordoba Property, from Minatura International LLC for a total cash cost of $4 million. The property consists of a mining concession contract and several mining claims covering 25,790 hectares, about 200 kilometres north of Medellin.

Ethos Capital Corp. (TSX VENTURE:ECC)(OTCQX:ETHOF)(FRANKFURT:1ET) is pleased to announce that it has acquired option rights to an additional 1,460 claims by staking in the highly prospective White Gold District approximately 120 km south of Dawson City, Yukon. The new claims are contiguous with and adjacent to the Betty Property (see November 30, 2010 news release) and the Bridget Property (see March 3, 2011 news release) acquired by option from Shawn Ryan and Wildwood Exploration Inc. A total of 166 new contiguous claims were added to the Betty property which adds 30% to the area of the property.

Crescent Gold Limited is pleased to announce a maiden probable gold reserve of 54,000 ounces near surface at its newly acquired Apollo Deposit in Laverton, Western Australia. Mining operations have been fast tracked and are scheduled to commence in the third quarter of this year. New drilling results and resource modelling had confirmed the probable gold reserve of 770,000 tonnes and at average grade of 2.2 grams per tonne Au (g/t gold) at the company's newly acquired Apollo deposit, less than 10 kilometres southwest of Laverton. Crescent Gold acquired the project last year from the former owners, Barrick Gold and Carbon Energy.