TORONTO, March 3 (Reuters) – Zenyatta Ventures Ltd,
the top performing mining issuer on TSX Venture Exchange in
2012, is banking on a rare type of natural graphite that it says
can compete on a quality level with synthetic graphite, while
costing much cheaper to produce.

The Thunder Bay, Ontario-based company is in the very early
stages of developing its Albany project in northern Ontario, a
vein-type graphite deposit. Vein graphite, also known as lump
graphite, is currently only produced in Sri Lanka.

TORONTO, March 1 (Reuters) – The euphoria that dominated the
global mining industry in recent years, when rapid Chinese
growth sent metal prices soaring, is fully spent. With metal
prices now stagnant and profit margins slim, budget cuts and
multibillion dollar writedowns have become the norm.

In reaction, shareholders have demanded blood over the past
year – sometimes in the form of a chief executive’s head -
leaving new management to usher in policies of cost controls and
disciplined spending. Traditional equity financing deals have
all but evaporated, leaving many small miners high and dry.

TORONTO, Feb 26 (Reuters) – First Quantum Minerals Ltd
may extend its hostile C$5.1 billion ($4.97 billion) bid
for rival base metal miner Inmet Mining Corp by a few
days, President Clive Newall said on Tuesday.

“There are a number of regulatory hurdles to go over, and we
hope they’ll all be done by tomorrow, but we may need to extend
slightly,” Newall said while addressing investors at the BMO
Metals & Mining conference in Hollywood, Florida.