India's polished diamond trade saw a sharp decline in February following the imposition of a2% import duty by the Indian government on polished diamond imports on January 17, 2012.

U.S.-based Enterprise Products Partners LP (NYSE:EPD) and Canadian Enbridge Inc. (NYSE/TSX:ENB) are shaping up as the main competitors for TransCanada Corp’s Keystone XL, as the two companies announced they will build new pipelines that will move as much as 850,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Canada to refineries along the Gulf Coast by mid-2014.

Canadian health products provider Nordion was the target of criticism at a major nuclear security summit in South Korea due to the company’s deal with Russia that entitles it to sell medical isotopes made with weapons-grade uranium for the next eight years.

Most Chinese takeovers in the resource sector do not pose a threat to national security, says the author of a new report on Chinese investment in Canada.

London-based diversified miner Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) is taking a page out of BHP Billiton's playbook and is looking at selling some or all of its diamond mines.

Chris Berry, founder of Mountain Partners asset management company, provided an interesting summary of the graphite space while speaking at the recent Graphite Express Conference in Vancouver.

"Shenhua is the most competitive bidder for the project given its technology, transport infrastructure, access to the Chinese market and the backing of the Chinese government," Shenhua CEO Ling Wen told reporters.

Dominique Delorme, President and CEO of La Mancha, noted: "Having quadrupled our resource base to nearly 5 million ounces of gold equivalent since 2007, it is exciting to see that this appears to only be the beginning, as we are just starting to scratch the potential at our Hassaï property, where nine more VMS targets remain to be explored."

In January last year local radio broadcaster Gerry Ortega, who fought hard for a ban on mining on Palawan was slain and now the Philippines' Department of Justice asked for murder charges to be filed against former Palawan Governor Joel Reyes and four others in connection with his death.