Frik Els , Editor

Bloomberg reports Silvercorp Metals was contacted by a Canada police unit called the Integrated Market Enforcement Team on Wednesday offering to help find the person behind an anonymous letter alleging a “potential $1.3 billion accounting fraud” at the company. Silvercorp Metals was forced on Friday to make public the letter, also sent to the Ontario Securities Commission, presumably from a shorter of the company's stock as it was also disclosed at the time that someone had built up a short position of some 23 million shares over the preceding two months. The firm with projects in China and Canada plunged 10% after the news broke, but has since regained much of the lost ground.

Reuters reports Indonesia may impose a tax or quota on mineral ore exports ahead of a planned regulation to ban all exports of raw minerals by 2014, the industry ministry said on Wednesday. The planned ban is part of a mining and coal law introduced in 2009 that requires miners to process minerals into higher value products before exporting them. The move would negatively impact copper miners Newmont and Freeport as currently only 30% of output is processed domestically and comes on top of news that workers at Freeport's massive Grasberg mine in the Papua province plan a second strike next week after wages negotiations broke down.

The Canberra Times reports Australia's proposed emissions trading scheme – which will evolve from the carbon tax being implemented next year – has won praise from Beijing, where it will be the model for one of six Chinese pilot programmes to be introduced in 2013. Earlier this week the EU also endorsed the controversial Australian plans and announced the start of talks for the eventual linkage of carbon trading by 2015. The carbon tax is vociferously opposed by Australia's coal export industry, the world's largest, which will be forced to pay a levy of $25 per metric tonne of carbon pollution next year.

The price of December gold – the most actively traded contract – dropped by almost $80 to trade below $1,800 an ounce on Wednesday morning. By midday bullion had regained some of its footing but was still down just over 3% or $56.60, at 1,816/oz in New York as traders banked profits. Gold has declined $120 in less than 24 hours after setting an intraday record of $1,923.10 an ounce on Tuesday. During August the metal added 12% as investors sought a safe haven from the slumping US economy and the continuing debt crisis in Europe. Despite the losses many analysts believe gold will hit $2,000 an ounce soon as talk of another round of monetary stimulus or a direct injection into the economy as part of a jobs programme lead to more cheap money entering the financial markets.

The deal-making frenzy in the global mining sector during the first half of the year was followed by a dramatic drop in activity in July and August, according to a new report by consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers. Figures from the report titled Riders on the Storm show that in July and August the value of global mining deals fell by 49% and deal volumes declined by 25%. The sharp reversal came after a record first half when 1,379 deals worth $71bn were announced even though Chinese entities, firmly focused on value, retreated from iconic western takeovers. Buyers were also willing to pay over the odds for large publicly listed targets – for $500 million+ acquisitions, the average premium was 37%. For sub-$500 million deals, premiums averaged a mere 8%.

Based on a study looking at five major solar markets – Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Britain – the Brussels-based European Photovoltaic Industry Association, the biggest of its kind, said competitiveness with conventional forms of energy such as coal could be reached by 2020, but in certain markets it could take just two or three years. The report notes the output of producers more than doubled in 2010, reaching a world-wide production volume of 23.5 gigawatts of photovoltaic modules. This is a more than 500-fold growth since 1990 and the pace of growth is not expected to slow. Predictions are for investments in PV technology to double from €35-40 billion in 2010 to over €70 billion in 2015. Governments have also been cutting back on subsidies for the industry to ensure a speedier reduction in costs.

EthicalOil.org, which stated goal is countering inaccurate and unfair criticisms of the oil sands, this week launched their first television ad as debate about the Keystone pipeline intended to carry Canadian crude to refineries on the US Gulf coast intensifies. The treatment of women in Saudi Arabia is the focus of the new ad running exclusively on the Oprah Winfrey Network in Canada and comes on the heels of demonstrations in front of the White House where celebrities had themselves arrested to persuade President Barack Obama, who has the final say, of oil sands' dangers and influential environmental voice Al Gore calling oil sands the "dirtiest fuel on the planet."

Bloomberg reports Mongolia is likely to sell a stake in its Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi coal-mining company to the public next year, raising more than $3 billion. The Tavan Tolgoi deposit – mined since the 60s – in the South Gobi desert is the world's largest with a 6 billion tonne resource of high-quality coking coal used in steelmaking. Metallurgical coal has been trading at record levels of $330/tonne this year. Tavan Tolgoi is the second largest mining investment in Mongolia behind the Oyu Tolgoi gold-copper mine being built by Canada's Ivanhoe Mines.

With the spot price for uranium falling below $50 – levels last seen immediately after the nuclear accident at Fukushima – U3O8 producers and explorers dropped across the board on Tuesday. Not even Hathor Exploration, the subject of a hostile takeover by industry bellwether Cameco, managed to get into in positive territory and the sector as a whole has lost more than 40% its value since the 11 March earthquake off the coast of Japan. And the near term outlook for the sector is not rosy either with a new study by Resource Capital Research indicating market price expectations looking out 3 to 6 months points to further downside, with a spot price expectation of $45.95/lb.

MarketWatch reports Mexico has overtaken Peru as the world's top silver producer as output in the Andean nation has seen a sharp decline during the first six months of 2011. In the January-to-June period, Mexico turned out 1.88 million kilograms (60.4 million ounces), compared to 1.63 million kilograms in Peru, according to government figures.