INFOGRAPHIC: The industrial internet, and how it’s revolutionizing mining

While the sordid details emerging from the proceedings are humiliating enough there may be some serious financial implications for Gina Rinehart – mining's 4th richest person with a fortune pegged at around $18 billion – as well. On top of the tax loopholes in family trusts exposed by the Rinehart saga, it has also emerged that Hancock Prospecting has not submitted annual financial statements for the past two years.

MarketWatch quotes  Nomura economist Zhiwei Zhang as saying:  "Overall, economic conditions are getting weaker at a fast pace. The slowdown is happening faster than the government expected."

The Nunatsiavut Government of Labrador, a regional Inuit government formed in 2005, has officially lifted a three-year-old moratorium on uranium mining on Inuit lands, by enacting its Environmental Protection Act and an amendment to the Labrador Inuit Lands Act, said the body.

Indonesia surprised the global mining community last week after a new rule – Government Regulation No. 24 of 2012 – was quietly announced on the mining ministry's website. A growing list of nations – and not just radical fringe territories such as Zimbabwe or Venezuela – are pushing for greater control and ownership of the resource sector on top of higher taxes and royalties.

lberta's oilsands producers are used to thinking big, and their plans to clean up the mess their mines leave behind are fully in line with the outsized trucks that prowl their pits and the outsized budgets that keep them growing.

Bloomberg's weekly survey of gold traders shows they are the most bullish since November 11 with 16 out of 23 predicting that the precious metal will gain this week after investors up their holdings of bullion backed funds to a record $131 billion.

Serial mega-mine developer Robert Friedland said in early February that Ivanplats will be developing the Kamoa mine in the DRC, Africa’s largest copper project that will have a lifespan that can be “measured in generations as opposed to decades.”

Genwal Resources Inc., a Murray Energy Corp. subsidiary, has pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors to settle a federal investigation into the August 2007 fatalities at its Crandall Canyon coal mine in Utah.

Molycorp's mould-breaking deal with Neo Material Technologies sent its shares rocketing in New York on Friday and some industry observers say the tie-up creates a vertically integrated company that will transform the industry. Others see REE prices continuing to drop with some already down 70% and China's grip on the market undiminished – exports could double this year and domestic production continues to ramp up.