Illinois' Prairie State power station is on the brink of production and the $5 billion coal-fired plant will supply electricity to 2.5 million households for at least the next 30 years.

It is now possible for individuals to establish a personal gold standard using the world's first Gold Debit Card. The service allows users to save in gold but spend in local currency.

The Business Standard reports now that platinum trades more in line with the gold price, Indian jewellery buyers are moving back into gold.

Xstrata plc is in talks with Japanese electricity producers to settle the next thermal coal benchmark price for annual supplies starting April 1 at between $115/tonne and $126/tonne, according to Bloomberg News.

A new survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit finds when institutional investors interested in frontier markets were asked to choose two regions out of five, two-thirds see Africa – projected to be the fastest growing region on the planet this year – as holding the greatest opportunity.

Chinese-owned mining company Ecuacorriente will sign a contract to invest $1.4 billion over five years for extracting copper in Ecuador's southern Amazon, reports local newspaper La Republica.

Russia's diamond manufacturing industry is slowly but surely emerging from the severe crisis it experienced since 2009, when polished diamond production fell to an unprecedented low of US$350 million.

A record of 212% increase in net earnings in 2011, as well as record annual gold production of 387,155 ounces, reported gold miner New Gold (TSX and NYSE AMEX:NGD).

Cameco Corp. (TSX: CCO; NYSE: CCJ), Canada’s largest uranium company, said it agreed to buy Areva Resources Canada’s 27.94% stake in the northern Saskatchewan-based Millennium project for $150 million. With this acquisition Cameco becomes the majority holder in the proposed uranium mine.