Frik Els , Editor

After a more than 3% jump in the first half hour following stellar financial results, investors quickly tempered their optimism about the world's largest potash miner and by midday Potash Corp was back in the red. You don't have to look too hard to find reasons for the scepticism.

Vancouver-based Goldcorp on Wednesday reported record third-quarter net income on an adjusted, non-GAAP basis of $459 million or $0.57 per share from $244 million or $0.33 per share in the third quarter last year. Revenues for the quarter grew 48% to $1.31 billion from $885 million in 2010 on gold sales of 571,500 ounces. Average realized gold price surged 39% over 2010 to $1,719 per ounce. Cash costs at Goldcorp now amount to $258 per ounce on a by-product basis and $551 per ounce on a co-product basis.

The US state department's anonymous leak to the media on Tuesday lowering expectations about a decision on Keystone this year should not come as a surprise to anyone following Barack Obama's poll numbers or the increasing bitterness on the left about his perceived closeness to industry.

On top of a 3.3% decline in US crude oil prices on Wednesday comes news from Reuters that a US State Department official said the year-end target to approve the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline could well be missed. It would be the second time a decision has been pushed out. A surge in inventories at the Cushing hub in the Midwest, the pricing point for US crude was behind the fall and a further delay to Keystone, designed to carry Canadian crude to Texas refineries and relieve the Cushing glut, will hit oil sands producers particularly hard. Canada's heavy oil already sells at almost a $30 discount to the international price.

Shares in micro-cap Hudson River Minerals Ltd. (Public, CVE:HRM) jumped 18.2% on the Toronto venture market on Wednesday after the company announced drill results from its Zarn Lake gold property in northwest Ontario. The company found anomalous gold in all 16 holes and most intersections were within 50m of the surface.

Canada's number one coal producer and world-leading nickel miner, Sherritt jumped 10.2% on Wednesday after reporting a doubling of quarterly net earnings and good progress at its massive Ambatovy project in Madagascar. Sherritt will start production at Ambatovy in the first quarter of next year. The company has already spent more than 90% of the planned $5.5 billion to build what will be the world's biggest nickel mine with the capacity to produce 60,000 tonnes of nickel and 5,600 of cobalt a year. Sherritt and its Asian partners have made the largest investment in the island's history and will make nickel the country's number one export for the next 27 years.

Gold climbed to a month high on Tuesday, briefly breaching the psychologically important $1,700 level, but the rally quickly ran out of steam. Gold for December delivery settled up $48, or just under 3%, at $1,700.40 an ounce in New York but in after hours trade the precious metal pulled back to change hands at $1,696. Earlier in the day the CEO of world no.3 gold producer AngloGold Ashanti, Mark Cutifani told Reuters he sees sees no bubble in gold and prices could easily go higher. Gold reached a record high of $1,920 in September and at $1,700 is still up about a quarter from a year ago.

AP reports one of the four bronze sculptures that included a Jules Dalou, sculptor of the famous Triomphe de la République in Paris (pictured), stolen from the Johannesburg Art Gallery in South Africa since January, were probably melted down and the copper content sold for a paltry $250. The market for scrap metal has grown dramatically in recent years and China alone imports some 400,000 tonnes of scrap copper per month. So called No. 2 copper scrap, which typically consists of a mixture of wire and tubing, sells for roughly 40 cents below the futures prices, which on Tuesday was $3.40/pound.

London-listed Gem Diamonds announced Tuesday it has sold the world’s 14th largest white diamond discovered at its Letšeng Mine in Lesotho two months ago for $16.5 million in cash. Gem will also share in the profit of any polished diamond cut from the 550 carat Letšeng Star. Letšeng is fast-becoming the richest source of large diamonds in the world and without the occasional large diamond find, the Letšeng pipe would probably be a marginal deposit, but the mine, 30% owned by the King of Lesotho, has also yielded the the 478 carat Light of Letšeng that went for $18.4 million in 2008 and two other big rocks.

Stock boards were buzzing on Tuesday as traders tried to figure out why Western Potash Corp. was soaring 18.2% without any news about the $200 million firm that would drive the share higher. Despite having nothing to go on, speculators had swapped 2.3m shares by 3pm in Toronto, 1.5 times usual volumes. The junior player in Saskatchewan’s potash industry is in the pre-feasability stage of its 940 million tonne Milestone Project, but some doubt if WPX would be able to muster the finances and logistics to go up against the giants operating in the province.