COPPER

Argentina's oil, gas and mining companies must start repatriating all export revenue, according to an order by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's administration, which is struggling to halt capital flight from the inflation-plagued economy.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. has declared force majeure on concentrate sales agreements from its strike-hit Grasberg mine in Indonesia, the Arizona-based firm said on Wednesday.

Townspeople in northern Peru are demanding an end to construction of the $4.8 billion Minas Conga gold mine because they fear it will threaten local water supplies, residents said on Tuesday.

Mauritania's current economic growth rate is not high enough to significantly dent poverty and the country will next year face the twin challenge of drought and uncertainty over mining revenues, the International Monetary Fund said.

The Eurasian Development Bank, a state-run joint venture between six former Soviet republics, has agreed to lend about $100 million to a Kazakh gold miner to help boost output of the precious metal in the Central Asian country.

Dubai-based City Energy & Infrastructure LLC plans to build a copper smelter and sugar plant in Tanzania over the next three years at a total investment of $500 million, a senior company official said on Monday.

Animal lovers gathered at JFK for Jack the Cat Awareness Day in honor of the flummoxed feline that went missing in the hands of American Airlines baggage handlers in August.

Mongolia's Supreme Court has ordered the government to enforce a ban on mining in river and forest areas following an appeal submitted by activists who said the country's fragile environment was threatened by reckless mining.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. resumed pay talks on Friday with its Indonesian mine workers union in a bid to end a month-long strike as gunmen killed three people near the giant facility.

Stocks bounced on Friday after France and Germany said a comprehensive euro zone debt deal was on its way, if a little late, although a weaker euro and rising bund futures suggested not everyone was convinced.

Asian shares inched up while the euro clung to overnight gains on Friday, but markets largely stayed within range, as investors awaited a weekend meeting of European leaders for signs of progress in resolving the region's debt crisis.

Zambia has suspended the issuance of new mining licences to root out potential corruption and clean up the process, the mines minister in Africa's top copper producer said on Thursday.

Tethyan Copper, a joint venture of London-listed copper miner Antofagasta Plc and Canada's Barrick Gold Corp , has filed a notice of dispute with Pakistan's Baluchistan province over its Reko Diq mine.

Miners at Freeport Indonesia will end a month-long industrial action and blockades at the world's second-biggest copper mine if the firm scraps sanctions against striking workers and considers a five-fold pay hike, the union said on Thursday.

If Taseko Mines presses ahead with a plan to build a mine on aboriginal lands in British Columbia it could harm the Canadian province's plans to expand the mining sector, a native leader said on Wednesday.

Falling copper prices and labor strife at some mines cut Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.'s third-quarter results by 11 percent.

The United States pushed through its toughest measures yet to curtail speculation in commodity markets in a tight vote on Tuesday, likely shifting the focus of a fierce four-year debate from the regulators to the courts.

Mining companies would be banned from investing in Eritrea's potentially booming minerals sector under a draft U.N. resolution that Security Council members are due to start negotiating on Tuesday.

Newmont Mining Corp. halted work at its giant Yanacocha gold mine on Monday after protesters blocked an access road and torched eight pieces of earth-moving equipment, prompting the company to ask Peru's government to intervene.

Scorpio Mining Corp. said Tuesday that third-quarter production of silver and other metals from its Nuestra Señora operation in Mexico rose 13 percent over the year-earlier level.

Voters in a sparsely populated district of rural Alaska have narrowly passed a ballot initiative that could block development of the controversial Pebble Mine, local officials said late Monday.