Brazil's Vale (NYSE:VALE), the world's largest iron ore and nickel miner, has officially closed the sale of its fertilizer business to US-based Mosaic Co. (NYSE:MOS), the No.1 producer of phosphate fertilizer, in a deal worth about $1.4 billion, considerably less than the $2.5bn originally estimated.The transaction, part of Vale's strategy to cut debt and focus on its core businesses, excludes t...Read More

Alberta-based Osum Oil Sands Corp. said that, by the end of the year, it wants to double production at the Orion SAGD project located near Cold Lake.Orion is the company's sole operating asset. The junior purchased it from Shell in 2014 for $325 million and it currently produces 9,000 barrels per day.In October 2017, just one month after completing its 1,500-barrels per day Phase 2A expansion at t...Read More

Unspecified technical issues at Birla Copper's Dahej copper smelter have caused the plant to lower output and to delay scheduled cargoes of copper concentrates or to divert into the spot market, sources told Metal Bulletin.Tonnages due for January and February arrival at Dahej, a 500,000-tonne-per-year smelter in Gujarat in the west of India, have been postponed until later months or are being red...Read More

The Democratic Republic of Congo's state-owned miner, G?(C)camines, is calling the government to update the 16-year-old mining code, arguing it currently benefits foreign firms more than local producers or the country itself.The company, which is heavily indebted and has consistently failed to meet production targets as of late, said in a statement it was evident the World Bank-supported Mining C...Read More

The Republican-controlled Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or FERC unexpectedly and unanimously rejected Energy Secretary Rick Perry's plan to boost nuclear plants and slow down the closure of coal-powered plants.According to Perry, the US' power grid would become vulnerable if more coal-fired power plants were to close down, a common occurrence in past years as the rise of natural gas and ren...Read More

A tractor-trailer carrying uranium concentrate or yellowcake to Cameco's Blind River refinery was involved in a minor traffic accident on Sunday. The incident took place on the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 17) between Wawa and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.Although Cameco says the contracted transportation company is investigating to determine the cause of the accident, local newspaper Sault Star rep...Read More

Recently formed Equinox Gold (TSX-V:EQX) announced that its board of directors approved $146 million for the full-scale construction at the Aurizona Gold mine, located in the Maranh??o state of north-eastern Brazil.With the idea of pouring gold in late 2018, the company says it has already spent $25 million advancing detailed engineering work, raising the existing tailings facility, refurbishing e...Read More

Canada's Cruz Cobalt (TSX-V:CUZ) plans to go all in at its projects in North America in 2018, particularly at its three British Columbia-based properties, as the junior miner bets on the growing demand for ethically sourced cobalt, a key ingredient in the batteries used in electric vehicles."We plan to be active on all of our Canadian and US cobalt projects in 2018," the company's president James...Read More

Diamond miners have started the year off on the right foot as two Africa-focused producers announced Monday the recovery of three huge diamonds, each bigger than 100 carats.Gem Diamonds' (LON:GEMD) unearthed a 117-carat and a 110-carat D color Type IIa diamonds at its flagship Let??eng mine in Lesotho, bringing the number of 100-carat-plus stones the company has found at the operation since ea...Read More

A prospective rare earths mine that could become a longterm supplier of neodymium and praseodymium has been green-lighted by the state Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).Arafura Resources (ASX:ARU) on Friday received approval from the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority (EPA), after an assessment process lasting more than two years. The EPA found that the risks from mining...Read More

https://tvo.org/Staking a mineral-rights claim will soon be as easy as clicking a mouse - but the new process may end up being hard on small-scale operationsFrom 1906 until early this morning, the process for staking a mineral-rights claim in Ontario was the same: Starting at the northeast corner of your intended parcel, drive a 10-centimetre-thick wooden stake into the ground, then trudge 400 met...Read More

While debate rages over how much lithium the battery industry can consume, there's a more scarce mineral that has carmakers worried.Read full newsRead More

It was a relatively quiet session until a little after 5am ET when all early-morning market moves were superseded by aggressive cross-asset reaction - mostly in the form of selling of anything US-linked - to a Bloomberg report that China is reconsidering its UST holdings.Read full newsRead More

The dollar nursed its losses against the yen on Thursday, having suffered its biggest one-day drop in nearly eight months following a report that China was ready to slow or halt its purchases of U.S. Treasuries.Read full newsRead More

LAS VEGAS, U.S. -- Panasonic will consider making batteries for Tesla's electric cars in China, Kazuhiro Tsuga, Panasonic's president, told reportersRead full newsRead More

America's trade imbalance just got a wee bit smaller. The U.S. has now become a net exporter of natural gas on an annual basis for the first time since at least 1957.Read full newsRead More

The Democratic Republic of Congo is preparing to more than double a tax on two-thirds of global cobalt supply, potentially increasing the cost of the critical battery metal just as the world begins to embrace electric vehicles.Read full newsRead More

The US is expected to decide tomorrow whether to continue to waive sanctions on...Read full newsRead More

The Democratic Republic of Congo is preparing to more than double a tax on two-thirds of global cobalt supply, potentially increasing the cost of the critical battery metal just as the world begins to embrace electric vehicles. Congo, the world's biggest cobalt producer, will increase the royalty miners pay on exports of the metal to 5% from 2% if it opts to categorize cobalt as a "strategic subst...Read More

Jeffrey Gundlach, the billionaire bond manager, said commodities may be one of the best investments this year as they surge during the late phase of the economic cycle.Read full newsRead More