T he best place to mine in South America just got better. Canadian mining executives and industry players are lauding the Sunday election of billionaire businessman Sebastian Pinera as Chile’s new president and say the mineral-rich and politically stable country will attract even more foreign mining investment under its new leader. “His reputation is to have a favourable stance towards business and tax, so those are all positives

W HAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR? What the pros are buying. It’s worth perusing the top securities of funds to get some ideas

N ew Brunswick will retain ownership of its power transmission system in an amended deal with Hydro-Qu�bec that aims to eliminate concerns that Quebec was gaining a stranglehold over power exports to the northeastern United States. Premier Shawn Graham is scheduled to release details of the new agreement in Fredericton on Tuesday.

T he New Brunswick government has reworked the proposed deal to sell NB Power to Hydro-Qu�bec following a public backlash and criticism within the Liberal caucus. The government’s house leader, Greg Byrne, said Monday that caucus members voiced their concerns at a meeting last Tuesday, prompting a number of “significant” changes to the proposed deal. “Then, on Thursday, an amended agreement was brought forward to caucus again,” he said.

H aving been rebuffed several times, Kraft Foods Inc. KFT-N was in talks late Monday to acquire Cadbury PLC for up to $19-billion (U.S.), news organizations reported. Cadbury has been fending off Kraft’s hostile bid for several funds, but a friendly deal could come as early as Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal said on its web site

T he Bank of Canada is unlikely to provide any indication when it releases its rate decision Tuesday, or its monetary policy report on Thursday, that it will be altering its policy any time soon, economists say. It has been nine months since the central bank said it planned to hold the target overnight bank rate at 0.25 per cent until the end of the second quarter of 2010. And the march by the Canadian dollar to par with the U.S