World #2 iron ore miner Rio Tinto has reached a deal with Komatsu to buy 150 driverless truck over the next four years. The new trucks, which will start arriving in 2012, will be used in Rio Tinto's Pilbara iron ore mines in Western Australia and can be controlled from its Operations Centre in Perth more than 1500 km away. Rio says the vehicles will increase productivity by hauling more material quicker. The Komatsu Autonomous Haulage System, a world first, has been tested in the Pilbara since December 2008. The company currently operates a fleet of 203 standard haul trucks and 10 driverless vehicles.

Royal Nickel (TSE:RNX) plans to advance its Dumont Nickel project, which is estimated to generate $1.1 billion after tax NPV, after receiving a prositive pre-feasibility study. The company, which made the announcement on Tuesday, expects production to start in 2015. On Wednesday afternoon Royal Nickel's stock was down 1.27% to 78 cents a share. The company says there will be a staged development so it can lower cost and risk. Initial capital expenditure of $1.1 billion for 50 ktpd operation is planned.

Shares of Randgold Resources, a pure-play gold mining company focused on west and central Africa, soared 7.4% Wednesday after announcing third quarter production increased 80% and sales jumped to $309.6 million from only $116.3 a year ago. Despite a once-off drop in gold sales from the previous quarter following instability at its Tongon mine in the Ivory Coast where it has been producing for one year and what it described as once in a century rainfall at its Loulo/Gounkoto operations in Mali, third-quarter income increased more than four-fold to $106.8 million.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. has approved a US$850 million expansion to the Tenke Fungurume mining operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Lundin Mining, a partner at the mine with FCX, made the announcement in a press release on Tuesday night. The phase two expansion, targeted for completion in 2013, will increase copper production by 50% to about 195,000 tonnes of copper cathode and 15,000 tonnes of cobalt in hydroxide. Funding will be split 70:30 between the mines two partners, FCX and Lundin Mining. The companies expect that capital costs will be funded by surplus cash from Tenke Fungurume operations.

President Obama will have the final say on whether the Keystone XL gets built. In an interview with the Nebraska news station, Obama said that the State Department will be giving him a report "over the next several months", which he will use to make a decision. "The state department is in charge of analyzing this, because there is a pipeline coming in from Canada. They'll be giving me a report over the next several months. My general attitude is what is best for the American economy and what is best for the American people short term and long term," said Obama to KETV NewsWatch 7's Rob McCartney.

OneSteel (ASX:OST), an integrated steel manufacturer and iron ore miner based in Australia, dropped 18% to 98.5 cents a share after the company gave a gloomy financial forecast as it tries to cope with falling iron ore prices and a rising Australian dollar.

As controversy continues to rage over mining in Zimbabwe's Marange alluvial diamond fields, Voice of America reports a deal has been reached to sell Marange diamonds. According to the World Diamond Council, the agreement allows two Marange operations to sell diamonds on the international market and a third, run by a Chinese miner, will be allowed to resume sales following third-party verification. The agreement, reached in Kinshasa, Congo, was ratified by members of the Kimberley Process, which is a system to prevent the sale of so-called "blood diamonds". The United States opposed the decision by abstaining from the vote.

Greg Johnson, President and CEO of South American Silver (TSE:SAC), explains the development valuation cycle, and how silver companies gain value throughout the exploration process. This video shows investors that if they are able to identify high quality deposits early in the development cycle, they can make large profits.

A mining industry consultant says the high processing costs and level of expertise required in bringing rare earth mines into production means most of them will fail. In an interview with Reuters, Jack Lifton, founder of Technology Metals Research, said of the 244 companies hoping to extract REEs, less than 4% will be profitable: "The choke point for all the companies is the question of what they can do with the concentrated REM ore once it's above ground. You can extract the rare earths together, but then you have to separate them...the world's REM separation capacity is 99 percent Chinese and they have unused capacity," Lifton said. "The Chinese overwhelmingly control this and that is the key to the rare earth industry. Without separation capacity, all you have is a loss-making ore concentrate company."