30,000 South African coal miners poised to strike

Australia's Minister for Resources, Martin Ferguson, has rejected reports in the Indian press that the carbon tax and mineral resources rent tax will deter foreign investment as it pushes up the price coal imported from Australia. Australia's controversial carbon pricing scheme passed parliament last week. The laws – fiercely opposed by the country's mining sector which says it will lead to more than 20 mine closures and cost thousands of jobs – will force Australia's top 500 polluting companies to pay a tax of $24.50/tonne on carbon emissions from July 2012.

Business Times reports thousands of people face evacuation from greater Johannesburg in the Gauteng province – the economic heartland of South Africa – due to toxic sludge from abandoned gold mines laced with high radiation levels. Acid mine water, the result of groundwater flowing through underground shafts, is decanting from an old uranium mine and rising by half a metre a day beneath the city of 7 million people. Mass evacuation of informal settlements is one of several recommendations in a government-commissioned plan drafted in June to deal with 380 acid mine dumps – many of them radioactive – left over from more than century of underground mining. Uranium is often mined as a byproduct of gold in South Africa.

The Globe & Mail reports this week, British Columbia premier Christy Clark announced during her China trade mission that she has secured $860 million in financing to build a coal mine in northeast BC near Hudson’s Hope which will eventually create 4,800 jobs. What Clark didn’t mention is the hitch: The proposed Gething mine would be built in the West Moberly First Nation’s territory. The province knows full well that the native band – one of a small number with a treaty in BC – opposes the plan.

Xinhua reports the chief of China's work safety watchdog on Saturday decried the poor safety standards at a coal mine where rescuers had pulled out 30 bodies and are still searching for 13 others following a gas outburst three days ago. Director of the State Administration of Work Safety Luo Lin, who led a investigation of the Sizhuang Coal Mine, located in the county of Shizong in southwestern Yunnan province, described the mine's safety measures as "very poor." The mine was found to be operating illegally, having had its license revoked a year ago, according to a statement from the provincial coal safety supervision bureau. Latest official data shows that more than 2,600 people died in mining accidents in 2009.

Reuters reports the US move to put off a decision on TransCanada Corp's proposed $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline for 18 months is a significant blow for Ottawa, which has strongly backed the project. The Canadian government and the Alberta oil industry will now turn their attention to the 1,170km Northern Gateway pipeline project from Alberta to a new marine terminal in northern British Columbia to serve Asian markets. But the $5.5 billion project which has significant Chinese backing, is already almost a year behind schedule and would not go into operation in 2017 at the soonest. Even this schedule is optimistic: starting in January, an unprecedented 4,000-plus people – mostly greens – will speak for a collective 650 hours at public hearings.

Global commodities trader Glencore (LON:GLEN) is making inroads into South African coal. Reuters reports that Glencore has signed a deal to buy energy trader Mercuria's 15 percent stake in South Africa's Optimum Coal Holdings (OCH) in its drive to acquire the whole company worth around $1 billion, sources close to the agreement said. Completing the Optimum acquisition would make Glencore South Africa's fourth-largest coal exporter, without including Xstrata's tonnage, for which it provides advisory services.

The Alberta oilsands has a new kid in town. Calgary Herald reports that Grizzly Oil Sands, a privately-owned company, has been approved for an 11,300 barrel-per-day, in-situ oilsands project southwest of Fort McMurrray: Cabinet approval for the project was given this week after approval was sought last year but chief executive John Pearce said the process of engineering and ordering equipment is already well underway. The company expects first production by early 2013, and to grow production at its other property to 60,000 bopd by 2020 reports The Herald.

A proposed coal mine near Hudson's Hope, BC, got a billion-dollar shot in the arm today. The BC government reports that CKD Mines, which is developing the Gething metallurgical coal project, will receive $1.36 billion through two separate investments coming from Chinese companies — the first, $860 million, is from CKD Mines, a partnership formed in 2010 that includes the Kailuan Group Co., Ltd, Shougang Group and Canadian Dehua International Mines Group Inc.

Statoil, the Norwegian state-owned energy company, is selling an oil platform to the highest bidder. The Huldra platform is located off the coast of Norway, about 16 miles from the Veslefrikk field. A slightly over-the-top ad is on the company's website extolling the virtues of oil platform ownership.