The continued strength of gold and iron ore prices are reflected in this edition of International Mining Project News. A heavyweight issue is dominated by projects heading into project development and the bulk of those companies are pursuing gold and iron ore interests. Amongst the developers are a disproportionate amount of Australians who are operating at home and abroad. The gold charge is lead by Oxiana, which is currently rumoured to be back on the takeover menu with Xstrata the possible suitor. The Ox has received the construction permit for the Martabe gold-silver project in Indonesia, which is picked up early last year through the acquisition of fellow Aussie, Agincourt Resources.

The Ox is also developing its Prominent Hill copper-gold project in South Australia and is almost at the end of the development phase. The project is due to come into production in the fourth quarter of this year and the company was aiming to produce 110,000-120,000 t of copper and 75,000-85,000 oz of gold during the first year of operation in 2009.

The list of iron ore plays looking to cash in on the 85% price hike mooted for this round of talks is extensive. Canadian company Palladon Ventures with its Iron Mountain project in Utah joins a long list of Australians that have made steps along the development path this fortnight including Gindalbie Metals, Centrex Metals, Atlas Iron, BHP Billiton, Western Plains Resources, Ferraus, and Aurox Resources. All those Australians are working domestically.

The gold and iron ore trend has continued into the handful of companies reporting production breakthroughs. Three gold projects have come online and one iron ore operation out of a total of five reports.

All these stories and of course much more in more than 30 pages of project news.

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