USA and Canada

Colossus Minerals is on the brink of gold, platinum and palladium production at Serra Pelada in Brazil’s northern Pará State: this is one of the highest grade deposits in the world, fully funded and permitted for production in 2013. For the investor, gold projects don’t come much better than this.

When the world’s second largest diversified mining company Vale acquired the iconic Canadian nickel miner Inco five years ago it was the beginning of the largest investment in Canadian mining in the country’s history, as Cory McPhee explains to Gay Sutton.

This Canadian engineering company is making its mark in the mining industry with a contribution to energy saving and the environment. Alan Swaby talks to co-CEOs Marc Boudreau and Denis Pitre and to the corporate services/sales & marketing manager Pat Dubreuil.

Aficionados of Doctor Who will be familiar with the Tardis concept – a deceptively small exterior encompassing a surprisingly large interior. In engineering terms, the Canadian company BESTECH is not dissimilar.

US convenience retailer 7-Eleven announced completion today of its deal with ExxonMobil to acquire retail interests in 51 sites in North Texas.

The sites are all in the greater Dallas/Fort Worth area and include two unused parcels of land.

The majority of locations will be rebranded as 7-Eleven stores, although they will retain the Exxon gasoline brand.

Trade intelligence company Zepol Corporation reports that US import shipment volume for December, measured in TEUs, decreased 8.2 percent from November, but increased 1.5 percent from December of 2010.

The total number of inbound shipments decreased 6.5 percent from November and increased 2.3 percent from December of last year. For the year 2011 as a whole, total TEUs are up 0.98 percent from 2010.

French electronics manufacturing services (EMS) company Asteelflash has announced the acquisition of the American EMS company, Catalyst Manufacturing Services Inc., based on the East Coast of the United States and in Mexico.

Asteelflash is already established on the west coast of the United States, and this acquisition extends its presence in North America, adding three production sites in Owego (New York), Raleigh (North Carolina) and Tijuana (Mexico).

Colossus Minerals has announced the acquisition of the Cutia Property in Brazil from Cooperativa Mista do Garimpeiro de Cutia. 

The property is located approximately thirteen kilometres to the southeast of its 75 percent owned Serra Pelada gold-platinum-palladium project. The Serra Pelada Project is a Colossus-COOMIGASP joint venture located in the State of Pará, Brazil.

Osisko Mining Corporation has released a preview of Canadian Malartic operational results for the quarter ended 31 December, 2011.

Fourth quarter operating highlights include gold production of 79,718 ounces, total gold production of 200,137 ounces for first partial year 2011, and an increase in grade mined in the fourth quarter averaging 0.96 g/t Au.

The company also said recoveries continue to be higher than feasibility modeling at 88.3 percent for the fourth quarter. Crusher construction is 60 percent complete as of 31 December, and on schedule.

Daimler and Google announced a deepening of their strategic partnership today at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

The collaboration will offer Daimler early access to Google's application programming interfaces (APIs) known as Google Maps API for Business, for the use of cloud-based, map-related applications in Daimler vehicles, and early access to other new APIs as they are developed.