US coal-fired plants retiring to peak this year — study

The Huntington News reports Thursday two protesters associated with the portentous Radical Action for Mountain People's Survival Campaign, continue to occupy trees within the Bee Tree surface mine's blasting zone, where they have stopped mining for eight days.   The Bee Tree mine is situated on the aptly named Coal River Mountain in West Virginia and is owned by Alpha Resources, the company that bought the original owners of the mine, Massey Energy which last year was responsible for the worst US mine disaster in 40-years after keeping fraudulent safety records.

CONSOL Energy, a diversifed fuel producer in the Eastern United States, reported adjusted net income of $174 million or 76 cents per diluted share, in the quarter ended June 30, 2011, an increase of 69% from the adjusted net income of $103 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2010. The financial results were aided largely by the coal division, which posted record revenue of $1.212 billion. This was the fifth consecutive quarter of record revenue for the coal division.

The Province of Alberta and Swan Hills Synfuels are advancing a clean gas for clean power project that will dramatically reduce emissions by capturing and sequestering over 1.3 million tonnes per year of CO2. The province has executed a letter of intent with Swan Hills Synfuels to provide a $285 million grant in support of this carbon capture and storage project.

Universal Coal (ASX: UNV) has moved to a direct 40% ownership of the Berenice Coking Coal Project and the Somerville project in South Africa, post the completion of the first phase of drilling and the updated resource estimate - which was completed by GEMECS. The significance of the ownership for Universal Coal is that Berenice hosts a coking coal JORC Resource of over one billion tonnes, with 218 million tonnes Indicated and 840 million tonnes Inferred.

Despite a flurry of mergers and acquisitions and a robust IPO market reports out on Wednesday suggest that fear is slowly replacing greed in the mining finance business. The Financial Post reports for investment bankers, the low-hanging fruit is long gone and the biggest financings are now high-risk: gold juniors in Africa, coal in Colombia and an infamous Quebec lithium play that overstated its resource. Global Mining Finance's July round-up says untrustworthy financial and resource reporting, threats of new royalty regimes, "super-profit" and carbon taxes, political turmoil, strikes and government takeovers are worrying resource investors all around the world.

Marathon Resources, a uranium explorer in southern Australia, plans to meet with Mineral Resources Minister Tom Koutsantonis after the company was kicked out of the Arkaroola. The Arkaroola is located in the Northern Flinders Ranges in South Australia, adjacent to Gammon Ranges National Park. The area has been a flash point for environmentalists who want to protect the area and miners who want to develop it. Marathon Resources was exploring Mt Gee, calling it one of Australia's largest undeveloped uranium deposits.

Canadian Oil Sands Corp., which holds the largest stake in the massive Syncrude oilsands mine north of Fort McMurray, Alta., said Tuesday its second-quarter profits rose on the back of strong oil prices. Net income for the three months ended June 30 was $346 million, or 71 cents per share _ missing the average analyst estimate of 73 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters.

Mongolia's state-owned miner Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi (TT) has agreed to sell $250 million worth of coal from the east Tsankhi deposit to Aluminium Corp of China Ltd (Chalco) , a move insiders said was aimed at raising cash to help fund its impending listing fees. Under the agreement, Chalco would resell 30 percent of the coal to Japanese trading houses Itochu Corp and Mitsui as well as state-owned Korea Resources Corp (KORES), Erdenes TT LLC said in a statement seen on Wednesday.

Shri Beni Prasad Verma, Union Minister for Steel, said that India will become the world's second largest producer of steel by 2013.