Indian Express reports the Environment Ministry today gave its clearance for mining in six coal blocks in Orissa that are planned to feed coal to three crucial power plants, including one ultra-mega power project (UMPP). Five of these six coal blocks fell in ‘No-Go’ areas — a reference to those forest areas which are out of bounds for coal mining —because of which environmental clearance was being held up. The permission came after all the three power projects agreed to substantially reduce the forest area that will be damaged by coal mining.

Stocks in Labrador Iron Mines Holdings ended up 5% in Toronto on Thursday after reporting that on June 29, 2011 the first loaded iron ore train departed Silver Yards for the Port of Sept-Iles travelling over the TSH and QNS&L railways. This historic event is the first commercial iron ore train from the Schefferville area in almost 30 years. Labrador is developing twenty direct shipping iron ore deposits in western Labrador and north-eastern Quebec. LIM’s properties are part of the historic Schefferville area iron ore district where mining of adjacent deposits was previously carried out by the Iron Ore Company of Canada from 1954 to 1982.

Madagascar Oil's annual report released on Thursday shows the company is scuttling its project with French giant Total to develop a 1.2bn barrel oil sand deposit on the island after three years of extensive work. The Bemolanga bitumen deposit adjacent the Tsingy de Bemaraha nature reserve (pictured) was first drilled in the late 1800s and would have cost upwards of $8bn to bring into operation. Madagascar Oil has been through a torrid six months – after raising $80m in its debut on the London AIM market in December the stock was suspended in March after the company declared a force majeure over threats of expropriation by the Malagasy governments of its other oil field Tsimororo. When it resumed trading this week the stock promptly lost 50% and has not recovered since.

Sierra Leone’s largest diamond-mining company, Koidu Holdings, says it has secured funding for the $150-million expansion at the Koidu kimberlite project and implementation is gaining momentum. CEO Jan Joubert reports that the expansion project incorporates all the currently evaluated kimberlite resources on the property. The richer K1 pipe, which was mined by vertical pit methods between 2005 and 2007, is currently being redeveloped to be brought back into production by the end of this year.

Gold vending machines are to be placed in every major city in Britain after the country's first Gold to Go ATM was switched on in a West London shopping centre on Friday. The company behind the machines that vend a 1g bar the size of a cellphone sim card aimed at ordinary shoppers plans to install 50 across Britain over the next few years. "It has not even started. The buying power of the smart money has moved into gold, but we didn't see the normal consumer buying gold. We have yet to hit the record price from the 1980s," said Thomas Geissler, CEO of Ex Oriente Lux, which are already turning over $52m/year from machines in the Middle East and Germany.

Australia's Lynas Corporation lost more than 11% of its value on Friday after it emerged the company's Malaysian rare-earth refinery may be delayed by a government review that called for higher safety standards, further limiting supply of rare earths. Once in operation, the Lynas project could account for more than a third of the world’s supply outside of China. China in recent months closed or consolidated more than 35 rare earth mines and cut export quotas sparking concerns in the US and other industrial nations about access to supplies and causing a frenzy of exploration and development activity.

MarketWatch reports gold futures lost ground in electronic trading Friday as the dollar strengthened against major rivals. Gold for August delivery declined $16.70, or 1.1%, to $1,486.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. A stronger greenback tends to discourage investment in dollar-priced commodities such as gold. The precious metal was also pushed lower as some uncertainty about the euro zone’s debt problems lifted. Despite the recent weakness, gold prices remain over 5% higher this year. Silver followed gold lower Friday, dropping close to 3%.

BHP said in a statement overnight that the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment had notified it of the approval, following an environmental impact statement submitted in December, 2010. BHP said Jansen would employ an average of 1,900 people during construction and create approximately 1,000 operational jobs once the mine has reached full capacity.

Outotec has agreed with Samarco Mineração S.A. on a turnkey delivery of the world's largest iron ore pelletizing plant in Brazil. The contract value is approximately EUR 200 million, which will be booked in Outotec's second quarter order intake. In addition, the contract includes local EUR 100 million purchases performed on behalf of the customer. Some 90% of the services and supplies for the project will be delivered from Brazil. Image by Outotec