PGM prices have been given a lift by the latest EU debt agreement but, while Europe remains a focus over the medium term, for now problems in major supplier, South Africa, are likely to come into focus.

Comex gold and silver futures prices closed the day session higher Monday, with August gold powering to another new all-time record high of $1,624.30 an ounce. The precious metal was lifted by the breakdown in debt talks in the US over the weekend and news that ratings agency Moody's has downgraded Greece's debt again saying default is now almost a certainty. December Comex silver also traded up $40.44 after hitting a new 11-week high early on Monday. The gold:silver ratio – the number of ounces of silver needed to buy an ounce of gold: eased back below 40.

Zimbabwe's state media has reported that the state mining corporation says it is paying government employee raises this month with revenues from controversy-mired diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe.

The chief of a Saskatchewan First Nation located near BHP Billiton Ltd.'s Jansen potash project is calling on the province to consult aboriginal communities in the region about the potential mine.

RIA Novosti reports that Norilsk Nickel has sold 8.06 percent of its shares to two offshore companies, Delmonico Group and Crelios Investment, for over $2.77 billion, the company said in documents obtained by RIA Novosti on Monday.

As the State Department weighs approving an oil pipeline stretching from Canada to Texas, experts are divided on whether the Keystone XL project would worsen global warming.

Beijing has issued a veiled threat to Australia's long-term economic future. It has vowed to break the power of the big mining companies by sourcing 50 per cent of its iron ore imports from Chinese-invested companies.

The value of mergers and acquisitions in the mining sector more than doubled to $96.3 billion in the first six months of the year and could top $200 billion for the whole of 2011 says a new research report. Canadian companies – both as acquirers and as the targets of buyers – dominated corporate finance activity in the first half shaking on more than a deal a day and at 325 deals accounting for almost two-thirds of all the metals and minerals transactions carried out around the world.

Indian Express reports Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, currently holidaying in Mauritius, is among a slew of politicians, many of them from the BJP party, set to be named in a damning 8,000-page report on the illegal plunder of the Indian state’s iron ore resources over a decade. The report from the Lokayukta, an anti-corruption ombudsman organization, may lead to so called President's rule in Karnataka when a state legislature is dissolved or suspended and the state is placed under direct federal governance and is proving to be a huge embarrassment to the BJP leadership.