Brazil’s Vale (NYSE:VALE), the world’s largest producer of iron ore, continued to flood the market with product in 2014 despite sharply lower prices.

$2.3 billion charge against Cerro Negro mine in Argentina one writedown too many for battered investors.

Latin American down the most.

It may be difficult to look beyond the current pricing environment for oil, but the depletion of low-cost reserves and the increasing inability to find major new discoveries ensures a future of expensive oil.

Mining solutions developer Maptek has re-launched the open pit scheduler which it acquired from Orelogy in 2014, as Maptek Evolution.

The Swiss Gemmological Institute (SSEF), one of the world's most respected gem research, education and grading institutions, has inaugurated a state-of-the-art laboratory in Basel, more than doubling the size of its previous facility and enabling a massive expansion of the services it has provided the gemstone, jewellery and watch industries for more than 40 years.

Sandstorm Gold has entered into an arrangement with Gold Royalties Corporation, whereby Sandstorm will acquire all of its outstanding shares

Paulson & Co has kept $1 billion-plus holding in SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest, steady going all the way back to the second quarter of 2013.

"People seem to be numbed to any news on geopolitical concerns so the focus has become the future of the US economic environment."