Orbis Gold Limited (ASX:OBS) receives high grade gold drill assay results from initial diamond drilling at the Bantou Prospect, south‐west Burkina Faso.

Growth south of the Sahara will surge to 6.1% next year, well ahead of the global average of 4%, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said this week. The second annual Africa Mining & Investment Conference Sydney (AMI) promises to be an outstanding opportunity for investors and mining companies to network and learn about developments in the rapidly developing continent.

Frontier Resources (ASX: FNT)  has received results from the four remaining drill holes of the 2012 drilling program at the Andewa copper-gold project in Papua New Guinea, further demonstrating the gold and copper potential of the JV project with Newcrest Mining (ASX: NCM).

Rimfire Pacific Mining (ASX: RIM) has commenced rotary air blast drilling to the south of known gold mineralisation at Trench 31 within the highly prospective Sorpresa project area in New South Wales.

Phosphate Australia’s (ASX: POZ) share price has jumped 78% to $0.057 today on news reports about a substantial copper discovery by BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) in the significantly underexplored West Musgrave region of Western Australia.

Condor Blanco Mines (ASX: CDB) has seen its share price double over the last two days to $0.046 per share after announcing on April 2 that it had commenced production of iron ore tailings at the Marianas Magnetite Tailings Project in northern Chile.

Renaissance Minerals (ASX: RNS) 25,000m drilling program is expected to provide an insight to the ultimate resource potential of not only the Okvau deposit, but also other regional prospects in the unexplored terrain in Cambodia.

Cassini Resources (ASX: CZI) share price spiked 30% to $0.13 yesterday on the announcement it had defined a large scale high priority nickel-copper sulphide exploration target in a recent VTEM geophysical survey over its West Musgrave Project in Western Australia.

Peel Mining’s (ASX: PEX) shares have soared today on the news that it has intersected a broad zone of variable stringer/breccia chalcopyrite-dominant sulphide mineralisation at its Mallee Bull Copper-Polymetallic discovery in New South Wales.

Tribune Resources’ (ASX: TBR) shares spiked 31% to $1.70 yesterday after media reports highlighted that Rand Mining (ASX: RND) and Tribune have low debt, high profits, locked-in gold production and exploration potential at the the East Kundana Joint Venture (EKJV) near Kalgoorlie.

In a significant step forward for Finders Resources' (ASX: FND) Wetar Copper Project, the Maluku Provincial Forestry Department has completed its final boundary and inventory surveys on Wetar Island, Indonesia. Finders is seeking to expand the existing demonstration plant and lift production to 25,000tpa.

Rum Jungle Resources' (ASX: RUM) off-market takeover offer for Central Australian Phosphate (ASX: CEN) provides a compelling next step in unlocking the value of Rum Jungle's complementary Barrow Creek and Arganara phosphate assets in the Northern Territory.

At the Tortolas target within Elementos' (ASX: ELT) Tamaya project, drilling unearthed 20 metres at 0.64% copper and 0.14g/t gold within envelopes of lower-grade mineralisation of up to 20 metres at 0.64% copper and 0.14g/t gold. Elementos is now investigating strategies for testing the main vein structure at San Jose.

IPB Petroleum's aim is to achieve production from its oil and gas assets, WA-424-P and WA-471-P, which have potential to host a new Australian offshore oil fairway. An independent expert's report put IPB’s share of prospective resources at over 500 million barrels of oil at the mean prospective resource level.

Silver City Minerals (ASX: SCI) is about to embark on a new round of drilling (4000 metres) in April-May 2013 targeting high grade giant base metal and silver-rich orebodies in the Broken Hill District of western New South Wales.