While the Australian government has started allowing miners to hire foreign workers to ease a labour shortage in the country, some companies such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have chosen to launch their own recruitment initiatives.
Brazilian mining giant, Vale SA, became the latest casualty of China's economic slowdown on Wednesday as its second-quarter profit fell almost 60% driven mainly by a weaker demand for iron ore coming from the Asian country.
Barrick Gold, the world's largest producer of the precious metal, reported higher-than-expected operating costs and a massive capital cost over-runs on Thursday in its first quarterly report since letting go CEO Aaron Regent in June.
PanTerra Gold Limited (ASX:PGI) has announced it has poured its first gold/silver dore at its Las Lagunas project in the Dominican Republic using world-first technology.
Located somewhere under 'a building within the international airport compound' in Hong Kong, Malca-Amit's vault is designed to hold 1,000 tonnes of gold – roughly 22% of the gold bullion currently at Fort Knox.
The volume of rare earth minerals legally exported from China for the first half of 2012 plunged by 42.7% year-on-year to hit 4,908 tons according to statistics from China's customs authorities.