Mining Companies See Billions in Value lost

The mining sector's bellwether companies were all beaten down on Thursday as the price of metals and minerals continued to slide and economic indicators from across the globe painted a bleak picture for the mining industry.

The market was very much influenced by several things, among them:

Bad news out of China and a new survey that showed manufacturing activity in the country is set to decline for the eighth month in a row in June.

The same survey conducted in Europe also released on Thursday supplied more reasons to sell – Europe’s banking and sovereign debt crisis is now dragging down even the powerhouse of the region Germany with factory output contracting at its fastest pace in three years.

As if that was not enough US manufacturing data released as the New York market opened also indicated an already tepid recovery was losing steam.

More at Mining.com

Not very good news for prospectors or anyone in the mining industry. We'll have to keep our boots to the ground and wait out the storm.

Cash for Manitoba Fuel Lab

Manitoba's efforts at environmentally-friendly transportation got a big boost yesterday with an announcement from the Federal government to commit funding of nearly $1.7 million to to Western Canada Testing Inc. (WESTEST), which is builing an environmentally-controlled fuel and vehicle testing lab.

WESTEST develops and tests components for the transportation, mining and machining sectors. The funds are set to boost biodiesel research at the facility.

In a statement released yesterday, Treasury Board President Vic Toews said the funds should ultimately boost fuel efficiencies and vehicle performance for the province.