The fate of 181 miners trapped in two flooded coal mines in east China's Shandong Province since Friday remains unknown even as rescuers say their chances of survival was slim.

Cronimet Group - a German metals company that owns largest mining enterprise in Armenia on Thursday pledged to make at least $60 million in additional investments to expand its operations in the country.

Think of salmon fishing. Imagine you see a large, expensive boat, perhaps with a depth-sounder, several state-of-the-art rods sprouting from its decks, downrigger lines in the water, strategically anchored at the mouth of a large river. It's human nature and good logic for other smaller boats to crowd around.

The blinders are off at Yale Resources Ltd's silver properties in Mexico and Ian Foreman P.Geo., the Vancouver company's geologist, president and CEO, said new drill program results ensure that Yale will earn the interest it seeks in the land parcels there.

Yale Resources Ltd.'s (TSXV.YLL) president Ian Foreman, P.Geo., thinks that there are two key things to look at when evaluating a mineral exploration company: The merit of its properties and the merit of its management team. Yale Resources, he says, has both: a solid company with great properties and a significant management team.

Yale's drill results from their Zacatecas, Mexico property confirmed the presence of bonanza grades of silver across narrow veins. The best intercept was 1340 grams per tonne over .8 metres. This concludes Yale's phase 1 drill program. Upon completion of drilling of the San Sabino phase 1 drill program, Yale will have earned its 65% interest from joint venture partner Impact Silver Corp. (TSX.V:IPT)

What qualities are ideal for the junior resource company CEO? Does financial ability trump geological talent? Or vice versa? Resourcex asked two active Chief Executive Officers in the Vancouver mining exploration community for their thoughts on this age old mining dichotomy.

MOSCOW and TORONTO, Canada, June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- OJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel ("Norilsk Nickel" or the "Company") today announced that it has received notice that Norilsk Nickel's proposed acquisition of control of LionOre Mining International Ltd.

Executive Director of the ACP Company (Armenian Copper Programme) Gagik Arzumanian stated that the exploitation of the Teghut copper-molybdenum deposit will make a serious contribution to the increase of economic might of the country and its competitiveness on the world copper-molybdenum market.

An astute investor once said, "If it's not grown, it has to be mined." It's a phrase of gigantic proportions and far-reaching consequences, when you think about it. From the knob on your television to the zipper in your trousers, most of what we possess was first explored for, extracted from the earth, smelted and finally manufactured. As such, mining is, next to agriculture, the oldest of mankind's industries.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has determined that lightning was the likely ignition source for the explosion in an abandoned area of the Sago Mine on Jan. 2, 2006.

Katherine Young of Resourcex Investor spoke to Terence Ortslan, a mining analyst at TSO and Associates in Montreal who has been travelling to Mongolia for 20 years, about issues affecting Mongolia's mining sector.