While not 100% mining-related, this story attracted quite a few visitors. After all, not everyday you get to read a letter by a businessman asking a French minister “how stupid” he thought Americans were. Too bad we never saw the reply. Over 26,000 people read this story, 300 shared it in Facebook and over a dozen in Tweeter.

One of our knowledgeable contributors took the third spot with this story, pulling in close to 26,000 visits, over 110 likes in Facebook and dozens of tweets.

With a headline like that, no wonder this concise explanation of one of this year’s most followed commodities behaviour was read by more than 25,200 people.

An asteroid that flew past our planet in February it said to have contained up to $195 billion of easy-to-recover iron, nickel and other metals. The company that triggered the alert also said it planned to send a fleet of asteroid-prospecting spacecraft out into the solar system to hunt for resources.

What it first looked like the recovery of two bodies belonging to top managers at US-based exploration firm Southridge Minerals (PINKSHEETS: SRGE), turned out to be a scam by a firm with a known crooked past.

Nearly 21,000 read the stories, which also generated quite the discussion in a known investors forum.

7.- Not that rich any longer, but never forgotten : this year mining billionaires

Presented in a unique slideshow format, this piece grabbed the interest of more than 18,000 readers and was amply shared in social networks.

During the worst year for gold in over three decades, these kinds of stories sold like hot cakes. This infographic analysed cash costs per ounce for the world’s top 50 producing gold mines.

A report on Transparency International’s annual corruption perceptions index, published early this month, became a top-seller rather quickly. Almost 15,000 readers learned how corrupted governments can be equally or more detrimental to the industry than resource nationalism.

10.- Our loyal science lovers treasured this brief note about Canadian geoscientists who found the oldest water on Earth in underground mine. 14,500 plus read this piece, and almost 400 shared it in Facebook.

We want to hear which one was your favourite story this year…Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

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