China to axe 1.8 million coal, steel jobs

The Canadian government did what it said it would do Monday, ordering close to 5,000 striking CP Rail employees back to their jobs.

The Newman Government has given the green light to what will be one of Australia’s biggest mines, the $6.4 billion Alpha Coal Project in Queensland’s Galilee Basin.

For many years now gold and silver -by its pattern of following gold wherever it goes- have been treated by traders, investors and central banks as a 'counter to the U.S. dollar' and quite rightly so; this definition, however, applies primarily to the long-term value of the dollar and not simply to the daily gyrations of the dollar's exchange rate.

Over the last two weeks, Chinese consumers of thermal coal and iron ore have been defaulting on their contracts, sending prices sharply down.

Mining giant Vale said on Monday it will sell its coal assets in Colombia to CPC, a unit of Colombian Natural Resources, for $407 million.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held 12 hours of stacked hearings in Chicago on Thursday, allowing the public to express their opinions (mostly adulation according to The Huffington Post) about the proposed carbon pollution standards for new power plants.

Australia’s decision to grant first ever right to hire foreign workers at the Roy Hill project in the Pilbara on Friday has sparked heated critics by local unions and the mining community.

Smaller miners are waiting for production cutbacks by the market leaders to prop up prices the way Saudi-Arabia comes to the rescue of oil producing nations whenever the crude price begins to flag.

The prospectus giving details of the creation of a $90 billion mining and commodities trading behemoth will find its way to the inboxes of shareholders this week.