Rio Tinto chairman Jan du Plessis steps down, set to lead BT

The since departed head of the institute which has staff of 78 was paid in excess of $500,000 per year and the organization racked up more than $54 million in "operational expenses" in the first two years including "conferencing in empire-style Parisian ballrooms" and being entertained by celebrity chefs in Tokyo.

Spanish coal miners armed with homemade rockets and slingshots have clashed with police over the country's austerity measures.

Exploration and development company Ncondezi Coal has signed a framework agreement with Mozambique’s Ministry of Mineral Resources for its 4.7-billion-ton Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant Ncondezi coal project, in the Tete province.

Indonesia will not be righting the perception that it's a place safe for miners after the country's supreme court said it will not hear Churchill Mining's (LON:CHL) appeal in its two-year legal battle to get compensation for a coal project that the company says was unfairly seized.

In China’s Qinhuangdao, the world’s largest coal port by capacity, inventories have exceeded levels last seen in late 2008 during the height of the financial crisis.

Illegality in the mining sector has deprived state governments of badly needed revenues, threatened the industry with costly and unpredictable shutdowns, and generated political chaos that helped bring down two state governments in 2011 and 2012.

Kentucky still has plenty of friends of coal and many turned out to bash federal regulators who have delayed action on 36 mining permits the state issued in 2010 and 2011.

Argentina's mining exports have virtually ground to a halt and companies are stockpiling gold, copper and other minerals due to foreign exchange rules that are impossible to comply with, a top industry executive said Tuesday.

Last year coal was the the only fossil fuel to record above average worldwide growth at 5.4%, while nuclear power consumption was off 4.3%, the largest decline on record, said BP in its look at energy use in 2011.