Rio Tinto Exploration has signed a conditional agreement with Tasman Resources for the funding of an accelerated exploration program on Tasman’s 100%-owned exploration license that contains the Vulcan iron oxide-copper-gold-uranium (IOCGU) prospect, 30 km from BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam mine in South Australia. Under the terms of the agreement, Rio Tinto will make an initial upfront cash payment of A$10 million after satisfaction of certain conditions, including the execution of a formal agreement and obtaining Aboriginal Heritage clearance for exploration over the southern portion of the Vulcan prospect area.

AngloGold Ashanti increased gold reserves at the Tropicana project in Western Australia to 3.91 million oz as of the end of June 2011, up from 3.37 million oz at year-end 2010. Project resources have also increased, up from 5.28 million oz to 5.36 million oz.

VMS Ventures reported in mid-May 2011 the HudBay Minerals exploration team drilling the Super Zone property 100 km east of Flin Flon, Manitoba, had discovered two zones of high-grade copper in a single hole. HudBay has an option from VMS on the property and is the project operator. The discovery hole is located 1.8 km northwest of the Reed copper deposit, where HudBay and VMS have a joint venture development agreement.

Ivanhoe Mines and BHP Billiton have discovered a new zone of shallow copper-molybdenum-gold mineralization 10 km north of the Ivanhoe Mines Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mining complex currently under construction in southern Mongolia. The discovery, known as Ulaan Khud North, extends the known strike length of the Oyu Tolgoi mineralized system by an additional 3 km to the north.

The Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG), in a statement issued in early January, charged the Australian federal government’s mining-tax-focused Policy Transition Group (PTG) with completely “missing the point” because the group had not made any recommendations that would support greenfields exploration in Australia.