GOP Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has called for the creation of a Gold Commission "to look at the concept of how we get back to hard money."

The Globe & Mail reports Ivanhoe Mines, building Mongolia’s Oyu Tolgoi, will scrap a controversial “poison pill” that clears the way for Rio Tinto, which already owns 49% of the Vancouver-based company, to do a complete takeover. The shareholder provision would have triggered an automatic rights offer estimated at $73 billion.

The Australian interviews investment bank Renaissance Group founder Stephen Jennings about investing in Africa. The New Zealand-born billionaire made his money in emerging markets, specifically Russia, in the 1990s, and tells the paper "sub-Saharan Africa will be one of the few markets globally offering real growth in the next few years."

Platts news service is reporting that Kinder Morgan, a pipeline company, and Ambre Energy will submit proposals to build coal export facilities at Port St. Helens, Oregon.

Zambia Daily Mail is reporting that a mining licence will soon be issued for a lead-zinc mine.

Namibia Rare Earths (TSX: NRE) is pleased to announce that a 6,000 meter diamond drilling program has started with two drill rigs focused on the delineation of a first mineral resource from Area 4 on the Lofdal Rare Earth Project in northwestern Namibia. Concurrent with the drilling program, an induced polarization geophysical survey will be undertaken over prospective extensions of the favourable heavy rare earth-enriched structure emanating from Area 4. The drilling program is scheduled to be completed by the end of April with delivery of the NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource report in the third quarter of 2012.

Sandvik AB is announcing more job cuts due to restructuring.

Caving to pressure from environmental groups, the Obama administration on Wednesday rejected the $7 billion-plus Keystone XL pipeline which would have carried 700,000 barrels of crude oil a day from the Alberta oil sands to refineries along the US Gulf coast. The lack of pipelines like Keystone has meant that Canadian crude sells for much cheaper than global oil – on Wednesday the discount widened to over $30.

Finning International Inc. (TSX:FTT) and Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) today announced the companies have reached an agreement for Finning to acquire from Caterpillar the distribution and support business formerly operated by Bucyrus in portions of South America and Western Canada and in the U.K.