Exploration investment in the country reached a record high of $3.9 billion in 2011, with the three territories receiving 22% of the total international spending for the year.
Even with significant ore bodies coming on stream from 2015 onwards in Brazil (Anglo’s Minas Rio and Vale’s Serra Sul), Australia will be able to keep its crown in this commodity kingdom thanks to Rio, say analysts.
While miners that already hold licenses will be allowed to keep working in the area, the authority emphasized that those permits will not be renewed once they expire.
HD Mining, the company at the centre of a court battle over Chinese workers at a coal mine in British Columbia, Canada, will release résumés of Canadians who applied for, but didn’t get, jobs at the project.