INFOGRAPHIC: Europe’s electricity consumption by country and fuel type

Canada's net crude oil exports will triple by 2035 due to in situ production and not hydraulic fracturing, according to a report by the National Energy Board released on Tuesday. Oilsands accounts for 55% of Canada's oil production today rising to 85% 24 years from now. "By 2035, in the Reference Case, oil sands bitumen production is projected to reach 811 thousand m³/d (5.1 million bbl/d), three times the production for 2010."

Reuters reports the board of Brazil's Vale has approved a $6 billion expansion of its Moatize coal project in Mozambique to lift output to 22 million tonnes per year from the 11 million tonnes it expects to mine initially with first production forecast for the second half of 2014. The country's Tete province is believed to hold one of the world's largest untapped coal reserves that has been compared with Australia's coal-rich Bowen Basin. Mozambique suffered a 15-year long civil war that ended in 1992 and remains one of the poorest countries in the world, but the ex-Portuguese colony 7% economic growth this year is forecast to accelerate thanks to billions in mining and infrastructure spending. The Mozambique metical is also the world's best-performing currency.

Vancouver-based junior Prophecy Coal (TSE:PCY), which moved to the TSX main board last month, has landed a major deal to build a coal-fired power plant in Mongolia. The company said yesterday its subsidiary, Eat Energy Development LLC, has received a licence from the Mongolian Energy Regulatory Authority to construct the 600-MW Chandgana power plant. It is the first thermal power plant licence to be issued by the Mongolian government. Coal for the Chandgana mine-mouth power plant will be supplied from Prophecy’s Chandgana Tal ("Tal") Deposit, for which the company has already obtained a mining licence. Tal contains 141 million tonnes of measured coal and is located 9 km north of Prophecy’s Chandgana Khavtgai project, a deposit with over 1 billion tonnes of measured and indicated coal, Prophecy states.

Boardroom chairs are being shifted at two large diversified mining companies, Vancouver-based Teck Resources and Brazilian powerhouse Vale SA, the world's second largest miner. Teck announced yesterday that Marcia Smith, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, will replace Doug Horswell as Senior Vice President, Sustainability and External Affairs. Horswell, staging into retirement, will work half-time in the company's Zinc and Health program. Meanwhile, Vale announced that coming this Thursday, CEO Murilo Ferreira will submit to the Board of Directors a proposal for a new structure of the company's Executive Board. Among the changes, the most high-profile is the replacement of CFO Guilherme Cavalcanti with Tito Martins, who currently runs Vale’s base metals division.

Nebraska legislators have voted unanimously to reroute the Keystone XL pipeline away from an ecologically sensitive region and the governor has signed new bills into law. The legislation is to pay for new environmental studies on the exact route the rerouted pipeline will take. The state and the proponent of the project, Canadian company TransCanada Corp. (TSE:TRP), agreed earlier this month to reroute the $7 billion project away from the Ogallala aquifer, a sprawling water table that provides water to cities and for irrigating farms. The new path would involve about 50 kilometres of pipeline. The company had long resisted changing the route, having already spent some $1.4 billion securing right of ways and stockpiling material for the project, which would deliver 700,000 barrels of crude oil a day from the Alberta oilsands to Texas refineries.

The arrival of four tiger cubs in Tadoba – one of the country's oldest national parks – has brought cheers to wildlife lovers. However, rampant coal mining in Chandrapur and its surrounding areas pose a grave threat to tiger conservation and protection reports Hindustan Times. The Indian government has allotted more than six new coal mines in the periphery of Tadoba tiger reserve where already half a dozen coal mines are operating. Tadoba tiger reserve was in the news recently for better big cat conservation and birth of 32 tiger cubs in the area since January 2010. India's tiger population has dwindled from tens of thousands a century ago to a mere 1,411 according to the last census conducted in 2008.

TSX Venture-listed GobiMin's financial and operating results for the third quarter of 2011 showed the diversified explorer made a handsome profit on the sale of a stake in a Chinese coal project. GobiMin disposed of a 24.49% indirect equity interest in Balikun Coal Project for a total consideration of $30.35 million, recording a gain of $8.21 million. The unaudited interim financial statements also showed the company ended the quarter with $63 million in cash. GobiMin also announced its Sawayaerdun Gold Project has completed drilling works of about 30,100 meters with 84 drill holes and continues for further drilling aiming to maximize the project potential and that it has extended the deadline for obtaining the mining license of Yanxi Copper Deposit to January 31, 2012.

Australia’s plan to impose a 30 percent tax on its booming iron ore and coal sectors cleared its biggest political hurdle on […]

Calgary-based Laricina Energy said Friday it is seeking regulatory approvals for a 150,000 barrel-per-day expansion at its Germain oilsands project in northern Alberta. The three-phase expansion would add to the 5,000 bopd Germain Commercial Demonstration Project for a total production capacity of 155,000 bopd of bitumen from the Grand Rapids Formation.