Norway’s $1 trillion fund resumes investing in miners, oil and Walmart

Peru's government and miners are discussing the implementation of at least two different rate scales for a new royalty payment system

Four miners were killed when a coal mine collapsed in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila on Friday, a senior government official said. Labor Minister Javier Lozano said in a Twitter message the fourth body was recovered late on Friday and an extraordinary inspection of the mine was underway.

Four miners have been killed in an explosion that caved in part of a coal mine in the northern Mexico border state of Coahuila.

Ollanta Humala, President-elect of Peru, fulfilled a campaign promise Thursday in announcing his government's intention to hit mining companies with higher royalty taxes. Humala, who was elected in July, campaigned on a promise to tax mining company profits and distribute them to the poor — a development that had investors and mining company CEOs running for cover in a country that is the world's second largest producer of copper and the sixth biggest gold miner. Companies now pay between 1% and 3% in royalties.

Reuters reports 50,000 protesters battled police in Chile's capital on Thursday, the second day of a two-day strike against unpopular President Sebastian Pinera. A recent poll put the right-wing leader's approval rating at only 26%, below even that of dictator General Pinochet, who ruled the country for 17 years from 1973. The protests follows recent strikes in the copper sector over pay and a campaign against a massive coal mine on an island in Patagonia amid accusations that billionaire Pinera’s shareholding in the developer, Copec, constitutes a serious conflict of interest.

One of the largest mining companies operating in northern Peru says that a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Peru Wednesday didn't interrupt operations. Roque Benavides, chief executive of precious metals mining company Compania de Minas Buenaventura SA (BVN, BUENAVC1.Vl), said in an email message he wasn't aware of any damage from the earthquake on its operations in northern Peru.

President Hugo Chavez has signed a decree formalizing the nationalization of Venezuela's gold mining industry. The move Tuesday is aimed at giving the government total control over gold produced in the South American country.

While Venezuela President Hugo Chavez may have little to gain from seizing the half he did not already own of the only private gold miner left in the country, bringing home the 211 tonnes of gold reserves, worth $12.3 billion, held overseas, is a different story altogether. CTV news reports bullion traders are preparing for one of the largest transfers of physical gold in recent history – about 17,000 standard 400-ounce bars – from Europe back to the South American state. While billions of dollars worth of gold is traded every day, only a tiny proportion of it moves from vaults in London, New York and Zurich.

Great Panther escaped the mayhem on the markets and ended Thursday up 3.6% on the TSX after announcing it shipped 100 tonnes of silver-gold pyrite concentrates from its Guanajuato operation to a new buyer in Mexico. Last week the company disappointed the markets with quarterly results that showed a drop in revenues due to the shipping delays and lower silver production as a result of falling grades. The volatile stock is down almost a quarter over the last month.