State-owned Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) yesterday launched an initial public offering to raise 9.25 billion riyals ($2.47bn) in the Middle East’s biggest mining IPO, valuing the firm at $4.9bn.
Maaden plans to sell 462.5 million of stock - equivalent to 50 per cent of its share capital - at 20 riyals each with subscriptions closing [...]

Ord River Resources announced that exploration by SARCO has identified an independently certified JORC compliant indicated bauxite resource of 62Mt. This resource is present on the Yuqida tenement located in Bolaven Plateau in southern Lao PDR. Further drilling is continuing on the Yuqida tenement with the aim of defining further resources. Drilling will continue through [...]

Navasota Resources Ltd. is pleased to report that aircore drilling on the Telimele and Gaoual (”AMIG”) permits of its Koba Bauxite Project located in the Boke Bauxite Belt of northwestern Guinea, West Africa, continues to progress well.
As of May 29, 2008, a total of 28,722 metres in 1,630 drill holes have been completed on [...]

Orissa-based Vedanta Alumina Limited (VAL) is set to export bauxite powder overseas from the Deep Water Port with the setting up of three silos here.
Kakinada Sea Port Limited (KSPL), in association with Chettinad Port Limited, had constructed these silos at an investment of Rs 80 crore, which have a capacity of 67,500 tonnes. Around 20,000 [...]

Mining company Cape Alumina has lodged a mining lease application for an area that encroaches on the 135,000ha Bertiehaugh Cattle Station, which was purchased by an Irwin family company with the help of a Federal Government grant after Steve Irwin’s death in 2006.
Renamed the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve after the late Crocodile Hunter, the land [...]

Indonesia has denied that it will set a quota for coal exports as it wants to reserve the coal for future use.
The reports had prompted rising interest in the country’s natural resources from energy-hungry China and India.
The reports were baseless and the new mining law likely to be passed by Parliament by June would in [...]

Century Aluminum Company and Noranda Aluminum Holding Corporation announced today that Larry Holley has been named president and general manager of Gramercy Alumina, LLC and St. Ann Bauxite Limited, effective May 8, 2008.
“We are delighted with Larry’s appointment,” said Century’s chief operating officer Wayne R. Hale. “His technical background, mining experience and energy expertise make [...]

Whinnen Resources Limited (Whinnen, the Company) (ASX: WWW.AX) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire 85% of the Fongo Tongo Bauxite Project in the Republic of Cameroon in Africa, for a total consideration of US$8 million.
Payment will comprise US$4 million cash and US$4 million in shares, and will [...]

Japan’s Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co plans to produce 123,300 tonnes of zinc in the first half of the year ending in March 2009, up 10.9 percent from a year earlier.
The plan reflects an expected boost from Hachinohe Smelting Co, an affiliated zinc and lead smelter that had been under maintenance over the past year, [...]

The Rs 4,000-crore alumina refinery project of Utkal Alumina International Ltd (UAIL) in Kashipur, Rayagada district, seems destined to be further delayed. The project, which has been hanging fire for the last 16 years, is facing fresh trouble from local inhabitants. “Work on the site has stopped for the last three weeks as project-affected [...]