Dow Jones reports a recovery in global auto and aerospace demand and continued strength in emerging markets should underpin a sharp rise […]

Toronto and London listed exploration and development company EMED Mining said on Tuesday it found significant potential new copper deposits near its Cerro Colorado open pit operations in Spain (pictured), sending its shares up over 5% in afternoon trade. In May the Cyprus-based company announced Andalucia, one of Spain's autonomous regions, gave approval for the plans to restart its flagship Rio Tinto copper mine, which was placed on care and maintenance in 2000. Production is scheduled to start in 2012 following further approvals.

The Canadian Press reports a group of shareholders in copper, nickel and platinum junior miner Ursa Major Minerals is looking to gather support for a bid to oust the company's board over the underperformance of its stock on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Merchant bank Forbes & Manhattan Inc. and Inspiration Mining Corp., which is Ursa Major's largest shareholder, said Tuesday they have filed a dissident proxy circular seeking backers for a move to elect new directors at an annual meeting June 23. Ursa Major was trading up 7.4% on the TSX by mid-day Tuesday.

Ringbolt Ventures announced on Tuesday it has engaged the services of Beeman Drilling Services to undertake a potash drilling program on its Lisbon Valley Project in Utah, part of the Paradox Basin, an area which according to the United States Geological Services contains over 2bn tons of potash. The TSX-Venture listed company has another other potash project in Arizona’s Holbrook Basin as well as a prospective uranium property in the Hornby Basin of Canada’s North West Territories. Shares of the thinly traded company are up over 110% so far this year at $0.295.

Cash-strapped ex-Soviet republic Belarus is negotiating the sale of its most prized asset, the potash producer Belaruskali, under the terms of a $3bn bail-out loan agreed this month with Russia, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Responsible for one-third of the worlds potash fertiliser production, Belaruskali could be worth as much as $20bn. A frontrunner for a takeover is Russia's top producer Uralkali owned by billionaire Suleiman Kerimov. The combined group would easily push Canada's Potash Corp. from the top producer spot.

Mercator Minerals is pleased to announce that that for the first two months of Q2 2011, the Company produced 7,538,130 pounds of copper and 1,128,674 pounds of molybdenum at its wholly owned Mineral Park mine in Arizona, as compared to total Q2 2011 production guidance for the months of April to June, given on March 8, 2011 of 10,163,548 pounds of copper and 1,033,558 pounds of molybdenum, representing 74% of the guided quarterly copper production and 109% of the guided quarterly molybdenum production during a period of two months of a three month quarter, with a full month of production to come. 

In an open letter contained in an ad published this week in the New York Times, 50 politicians, actors, scientists and public officials urged the Obama Administration extend a 1-million acre mining ban around the Grand Canyon National Park for 20 years. In 2009 U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar issued a federal order calling for a two-year "time-out" from all new mining claims in the Arizona Strip near the Grand Canyon. The lands blocked from new exploration and mining activity includes acreage managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. Image is from Wikipedia and Chensiyuan

Profit margins for the world’s top 40 mining companies are below the historical peaks of 2006 and 2007 as higher costs outweigh […]

The world’s fifth largest copper mine, Chile’s El Teniente, worked at less than half of capacity on Monday as most workers stayed […]