EU regulators are stepping up scrutiny of the mooted $90 billion merger of the commodities trader and coal giant and the whole vetting process could take until early 2013. That is if the deal goes ahead at all.
None of mining's top companies escaped the carnage on Thursday after a survey of manufacturing in China showed activity slowed for a fifth straight month.
Takeover activity is poised to heat up in the Canadian uranium sector as energy-hungry China hunts for feedstock to fuel its growing family of nuclear reactors.
The Canadian federal budget due to be released next week will please miners and the oil patch and is likely to make environmental groups see red, not green.
The 30% tax on iron ore and coal producers passed by the Australian government may raise the prices of those commodities but will also shrink margins of steelmakers, analysts say.
Coal mining in Appalachia has survived deadly explosions, the Great Depression and the country’s largest armed insurrection since the Civil War. The latest threat is booming shale-gas production.
Australia's resources and energy commodity export earnings will continue to grow over the medium term to reach a record $225 billion in 2016-17, said today the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE).