Mining companies in Peru invested US$7.2 billion in 2011, 77% more than in 2010, Mines and Energy Ministry (MEM) reports.

Canada’s Gabriel Resources Ltd. (TSX:GBU) became the centre of attention this morning as an important figure of Romania's 1989 revolution, MEP Laszlo Tokes, left his party on Monday over Rosia Montana, a debated gold mine project in north-western Romania.

The government of Botswana has established a new diamond trading company that will be responsible for the purchasing, selling and marketing of the state’s portion of Debswana Diamond’s production.

The Nunatsiavut Government of Labrador, a regional Inuit government formed in 2005, has officially lifted a three-year-old moratorium on uranium mining on Inuit lands, by enacting its Environmental Protection Act and an amendment to the Labrador Inuit Lands Act, said the body.

Indonesia surprised the global mining community last week after a new rule – Government Regulation No. 24 of 2012 – was quietly announced on the mining ministry's website. A growing list of nations – and not just radical fringe territories such as Zimbabwe or Venezuela – are pushing for greater control and ownership of the resource sector on top of higher taxes and royalties.

lberta's oilsands producers are used to thinking big, and their plans to clean up the mess their mines leave behind are fully in line with the outsized trucks that prowl their pits and the outsized budgets that keep them growing.

Chile newspaper La Tercera is reporting that an appeals court has suspended environmental authorization for Goldcorp's El Morro project over objections by local communities. Construction of the mine was due to commence in September this year at a cost of $3.9 billion over five years.

Bloomberg's weekly survey of gold traders shows they are the most bullish since November 11 with 16 out of 23 predicting that the precious metal will gain this week after investors up their holdings of bullion backed funds to a record $131 billion.

Serial mega-mine developer Robert Friedland said in early February that Ivanplats will be developing the Kamoa mine in the DRC, Africa’s largest copper project that will have a lifespan that can be “measured in generations as opposed to decades.”