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Hey, junior gold mining investors: Are you having fun yet? The gold sector, as you no doubt know if you’re a participant, has been absolutely decimated this year.

BusinessLive, in a feature article posted Saturday, presents a good summary of efforts made thus far to advance ocean mining.

Plans by Nautilus Minerals to explore the ocean floor for polymetallic seafloor massive sulphide deposits have been well reported, but according to BusinessLive, another ocean mining operation, this time for phosphates, is underway off the coast of South Africa and Namibia:

On the same sea bed, miners intend to extract phosphates. It will be the first time in the world that phosphates are taken from the sea, where the heaviest accumulation of phosphorous material is believed to be.

The Sandpiper project being proposed by Namibian Marine Phosphate would extract phosphate, a key ingredient in fertilizer, from the 1.8-billion tonne deposit as early as 2014. BusinessLive quotes project manager David Wellbeloved saying the mine could be operational for an astonishing 200 years.

The project is awaiting environmental permits and Wellbeloved said he believes any ecological impacts from the project can be mitigated.

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Global refined copper production rose by 3% year-on-year to 4.95 million tons in the first quarter (Q1) of this year with significant increase in Spain, Iran and India, as per latest data released by World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS). -Refined…

MUMBAI/SINGAPORE - Gold demand in China may surge as much as 30 percent this year as rising incomes boost consumption, helping the country topple as the world’s largest bullion market on an annual basis, according to the World Gold Council. Demand, which…

With its massive production potential, northern Saskatchewan is securing its seat as one of the best locations in the world to mine gold.

(ChinaPost.com.tw) - India’s Tata Steel forecast improving global demand in spite of European woes, as the world’s No.7 steelmaker reported a bigger-than-expected drop in quarterly profit after being squeezed by weak prices, lower volume and higher input…

India could have trouble closing a shortfall in the supply of coal, after the world’s largest coal company pulled out of a consortium to help India buy overseas coal reserves, The Economic Times reports.

The news site reports that the board of state-owned Coal India Limited (CIL) decided on Friday to exit ICVL, a joint venture between Indian companies SAIL, CIL, RINL, NTPC and NMDC incorporated in 2009 to source coking coal and thermal coal assets:

“Coal India (CIL) board agreed to walk out of ICVL. The board felt that it was not advantageous for Coal India to be part of the consortium. Rather, the venture on the part of CIL involved financial burden without commensurate advantage,” a source close to the development said.

The pullout comes amid a growing shortfall of coal in India, says The Economic Times, quoting an official document:

The gap in the demand and supply of coal widened to 161.5 MT last fiscal. In 2010-11, the shortfall of coal was about 132.8 MT, while in 2009-10 it was 90.5 MT.

In related news, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that India’s hunt for foreign mines is not going well.

WSJ says Indian mining companies looking to make overseas acquisitions are running into difficulties:

Among the major disappointments is the inability of a consortium set up by five large state-run companies to buy coal mines overseas.

Private sector companies have fared no better in their bid to acquire overseas mines.

Resource nationalism, on the rise in mineral-rich developing countries, is a major roadblock.

India needs raw materials to manufacture goods and to power factories, but is restricted in what it can mine domestically. It can take a mining company years to acquire a mining licence, and illegal mining of iron ore, limestone and bauxite has damaged the environment and given mining a bad name. Last year, for example, iron ore mining was banned in the state of Karnataka to prevent further environmental destruction. The government’s system of allocating mines is also rife with corruption.

Despite ongoing pressure from the United States for China to join its sanctions against Iran due to concerns over the Islamic countrys nuclear program, an Iranian diplomat recently revealed that new energy trades between Iran and China will be settled in…

Stricter environmental rules on new mining projects, combined with soaring labour costs, are making Vale SA, the world’s leading iron ore producer, less competitive against Australian rivals Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.

Bloomberg reports Brazil’s share of the seaborne iron-ore market could drop from 31% to 27% by 2016, while Australia’s may grow from 41% to 50%:

“We are becoming less competitive,” Jose Fernando Coura, president of the Brazilian Mining Institute, said by telephone from Brasilia. Getting approval for a new project is “a Cavalry because you need to go through 350,000 institutions,” he said.

The output drop is partly due to Vale’s delaying the $8 billion Carajas Serra Sul expansion plus at least three other projects “amid environmental permit issues, higher costs and labor shortages,” the news outlet reported.

In Australia, on the other hand, “The investing environment … is a little bit friendlier than in Brazil from a political, environmental and permitting standpoint,” Bloomberg quotes New Jersey-based analyst Andrew Cosgrove saying. “Brazil may not be seen as the source of new supply in the future that a lot of people are expecting.”

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