mineral exploration project – commodity prices – mining stock- trade and market

Brazilian mining giant Vale is not preparing a bid for Canada’s Potash Corp, two sources close to Vale told Reuters on Monday.

Potash, the world’s largest fertilizer supplier, is fighting off a $39 billion takeover offer from Australian mining company BHP Billiton and is seeking a white knight.

One source with direct knowledge of the situation, asked about a possible Vale bid, said, “I’m not seeing any movement in that direction. It’s a very big operation. If there were an offer, there would have to be some kind of movement.”

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The Australian sharemarket closed three per cent higher for the week, as middling-to-positive leads from European stocks and Wall Street culminated in a solid weekly close, after China rejected reports it was considering reviewing its European bond holdings.

For the week, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index gained 3.15 per cent to 4,457.5 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index jumped 7.58 per cent to 4,479 points.

AMP Capital Investors chief economist Shane Oliver said it looked like a correction in equities and commodities prices was under way, and a decent rally was beginning.

PLATTS has launched the world’s first daily coking coal index as it looks to exploit a push by BHP Billiton to abandon annually set pricing.

BHP Billiton attempt to move to quarterly or index-based pricing has been quicker than most expected, sparking a number of data providers to look at starting up spot price indexes for coking coal, which is used in steelmaking.

As well as Platts, US-based Energy Publishing has started up a weekly coking coal index for exports out of Queensland, while Britain’s Argus Media is also preparing an index.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has set itself an April 28 deadline for ruling on the $US116 billion ($127bn) West Australian iron ore merger between BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, a delay of two months on its target.

Last month, the ACCC said it had delayed its findings on the merger and had requested more information from BHP and Rio.

Asian stocks rose, driving the MSCI Asia Pacific Index to a six-week high, as better-than-estimated U.S. jobs data and a pledge by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to support...

Argentina’s ambassador to Australia has stepped up the pressure on local mining giant BHP Billiton, warning...

South Africa’s main stock index advanced to highest close in a month after Morgan Stanley recommended investors add to holdings of the country’s equities on company valuations and a weaker rand.

BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, and Anglo American Plc, the diversified mining company which accounts for more than 10 percent of the South African benchmark by weighting, led the gain.

Analysis released by BHP Billiton said that the increase in iron ore spot prices due to increased iron ore demand from steel industry in China. Iron ore prices...