Finland to ban coal use for energy by 2030

The company will immediately mothball four mines in central Appalachia, plans to idle two more by early next year and scale back output at other mines as US coal demand for electricity generation wanes.

South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress, appears to be moving away from nationalization of the mining industry to reassure foreign investors but is considering new taxes and "targeted interventions" in the sector, particularly platinum mines.

According to a new European Wind Energy Association report a record 71% of all the new power generating capacity installed in the Europe Union in 2011 came from solar panels, offshore and onshore wind turbines and other renewable energy sources. This at the same time as the world's largest clean coal power station project appears stuck in the starting blocks.

The Telegraph reports Chairman John Bond and CEO Mick Davis risk being voted off the board of Xstrata after being accused of negotiating "a cosy stitch-up" with Glencore and that other major shareholders have threatened to block the deal altogether if the Swiss commodities giant does not offer a "substantial premium."

Glencore International is in talks with Xstrata to merge in a deal that would create a $80 billion rival to BHP Billiton, Vale, Rio Tinto and China's Shenhua. Here's a wrap-up of what people are saying about the birth of the globe's first vertically integrated resource giant.

The Big Picture: News Stories in Photographs, a photojournalism blog, has a segment on coal photos.

The richest woman in the world, Gina Rinehart, on Wednesday dropped $200 million in "loose change" to more than double her stake in Australian newspaper group Fairfax to add to her shares in a television channel prompting questions about the mining magnate's motivations.

Junior miner London Mining’s stocks (LON:LOND) went up almost five per cent today as the company announced two major milestones: the first shipment of iron ore from its Marampa project in Sierra Leone and the commencement of production of coking coal in Colombia.