Ivanhoe announced on Thursday its Australian project is producing copper and gold ahead of schedule. Last week the company said Ivanhoe Australia is on the chopping block as its mega-mine in Mongolia requires all its financial resources.

Positive stress test results have been successful in calming anti-nuclear sentiments, following protests against nuclear energy that stemmed from the Fukushima disaster in March 2011, according to a new report by English energy research company GlobalData.

Peru's Madre de Dios gold-rich region is losing US$560,000 a day as a result of informal miners' protests happening in the area since Monday, said the country’s president of the regional chamber of commerce, Roman Meza.

Mexico’s exploration expenditures are the highest in Latin America, reaching a record high of almost US$1 billion in 2011, says the latest report released by the Metals Economics Group’s (MEG), a think tank based in Halifax, Canada.

BHP Billiton would not be willing to negotiate with the unions on strike at its coal mines in Australia and had said the battle is "likely to get tougher before it's over", an e-mail published by ABC’s PM reveals.

The country's deputy energy and mining minister says the new regulation that changes the rules on foreign ownership of mines applies to all companies and is not aimed specifically at Freeport McMoRan.

Hudbay Minerals (TSE:HBM) rang in the fourth quarter with a $34.3 million profit or 21 cents per share, compared to $7.9 million or seven cents a share at the end of 2010.

VANCOUVER, March 7, 2012 /CNW/ - Extorre Gold Mines Limited (AMEX: XG; TSX: XG; Frankfurt:E1R, "Extorre" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement pursuant to which Canaccord Genuity Corp. (the "Underwriter"), has offered to purchase, on a bought deal private placement basis, 3,530,000 common shares (the "Shares") of the Company at a price of C$7.10 per Share for total gross proceeds of C$25,063,000 (the "Offering").

ATCO announced on Monday that it has been awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to design, build and operate a 2,586-person turnkey workforce housing lodge for BHP Billiton’s Jansen Potash Project, 100 km north of Regina.