Augusta Resource Corp. (TSE:AZC) — the company behind Arizona's latest copper mine — suffered a setback last week in its efforts to develop its Rosemont Copper Project.

Canada's North American Palladium said it plans to expand its flagship mine in Northern Ontario at a cost of around $75 million for the first phase of the project. Phase 1 of the Lac des Iles expansion should be completed in the fourth quarter of next year when the shaft will begin operating at a rate of 3,500 tonnes per day. The mine is located northwest of the city of Thunder Bay, and its primary deposits are palladium with some platinum, gold, nickel, and copper by-products. The company, which also operates two gold mines in Quebec, received a bump at the opening of trade in New York with the stock up 3.3% in a softer broader market.

John Garnaut identifies a disturbing trend for iron ore exporters, with Chinese steel prices falling and iron ore prices expected to follow, he writes in the Sydney Morning Herald. Garnaut quotes Chinese analysts saying that capacity utilization is declining because steel demand and prices are falling, while the prices for raw materials used in steelmaking — namely coal and iron ore — remain high. The steel and iron ore markets were bracing for "volatility on a declining trend", said Yin Jimei, an analyst at Iron & Steel Information Website in Tangshan. Xu Xiangchun, at Mysteel in Shanghai, said market anxieties over the global economy have coincided with softening domestic demand including a decline in railway construction due to a series of scandals in the Ministry of Railways.

The WA Government has urged apprentices to stick with their training after new figures indicating four out of ten drop out. At some major training providers up to half of all apprentices quit in their first year, with many moving on to highly paid but unskilled mining jobs.

Businessweek reports on the day it cleared and matched its first gold trade the London Metal Exchange which handles some 80% of global trade in metals futures, told members on Tuesday that it has receive "many" expressions of interest from potential bidders. The 134-year-old exchange is facing increased competition from other exchanges in Asia and is plagued by a backlog of industrial metals particularly aluminum that’s building at warehouses. LME-monitored warehouses contain 6.7 million metric tons of metal and at some warehouses such as Detroit it can take as long as seven months to withdraw metal. The LME is looking to start trading silver next year.

US stocks were driven down at Tuesday’s start with the Dow Jones falling as much as 250 points as Belgium's Dexia become the first Eurozone bank to be bailed out before making a dramatic about turn during the last hour of trade to end up 153 points or 1.4%. The S&P 500 dropped shortly after the opening bell only to end up 2.25% at 1,124 points, but is still down 18% over the last four months. The resource-heavy TSX composite index were almost at a two-year low before making up some of the lost ground to end down just two-thirds of a percent. Gold could not capitalize on the ongoing volatility and fell further after hours to trade at $1,623/oz. Bullion had briefly dipped below $1,600/oz before noon.

Aleksandra Tomczak, writing for the World Coal Association, says the European Commission is supporting World Bank funding for a new coal-powered plant in Kosovo.

As the price of copper drops to a 14-month low on speculation of sluggish demand for industrial metals, the chief executive of Codelco — the world's largest copper producer — said buyers in China should take advantage, Bloomberg reported.

The Independent reports the first coal to be mined in Newcastle upon Tyne for more than 50 years could be dug on the site of a 21st century science park ahead of construction. Up to 60,000 tonnes of coal lie below what was a brewery until recently. The area was mined extensively in the 18th century and the various workings underneath make present-day building work perilous.