China risks wasting $490 billion on unneeded coal plants — study

The Philippines will offer 30 coal exploration projects in the central and northern provinces, where mining is not yet banned that may need total investments of $600 million at a tender to be held in the first quarter of 2012.

London-listed Churchill Mining Plc is threatening Indonesia to seek international arbitration, saying that the company was unlawfully deprived of a US$1.8 billion coal discovery in the jungles of Borneo Island. The East Kutai project is a huge resource with a JORC compliant estimate of 2.7 billion tonnes of coal, acquired by Churchill in 2007 through an acquisition of a 75% stake in Indonesian group Ridlatama.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration today announced that eight mines around the country have received letters putting them on notice that each has a potential pattern of violations of mandatory health or safety standards under Section 104(e) of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977. The PPOV screening from which these letters resulted represents the second since MSHA established the current criteria and procedures in September 2010. The eight mines that received letters are as follows: (Click on the headline to read the list and rest of story)

Remember those pictures and videos of cars and trucks bobbing down a surging river in Brisbane? It could happen again. Business Standard reports that severe weather could be on its way to Queensland towards the end of the year: La Niña —a weather phenomenon characterised by unusually cool sea surface temperatures, leading to heavy rains in the Pacific region such as the Queensland floods — has re-emerged but is expected to weaker than last year, metrological agencies have said, adding that the La Niña could strengthen in intensity moving into 2012.

North American stock exchanges are on a tear today after central banks made more funds available to lenders, giving investors hope for a way out of the European debt debacle. The markets were also cheered by better than expected private sector job growth in the United States. The mining-heavy S&P/TSX Composite was up 2.5% to just over 12,000 at time of writing. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 384 points, or 3.3%, the most on a closing basis since Aug. 11, according to Bloomberg. Spot gold was up $32 from yesterday to $1747 which is just above the 20-day moving average of $1744, noted Kitco. Silver was up marginally to $32.86 from yesterday's $31.92, while benchmark copper was up more than 5% to a two-week high of $7,885/tonne. Zinc, lead, aluminum and nickel were also up from Tuesday.

Australian landowner Ian Moore has taken to court his battle against coal company NuCoal, which wants access to drill three boreholes on his property north of Sydney for its proposed Doyle’s Creek mine. Moore says he opposed the operations because of the potential damage it could cause to underground water supplies and because he is legally blind and relies on a visual memory of his property to farm, which the drilling operations and bore holes could hinder. The beef farmer has been backed up by locals, who fear their property could be next.

BusinessLive reports that while acid mine drainage from disused gold mines in the Johannesburg area of South Africa is well documented, according to a new study AMD from nearly 6,000 abandoned mines is acidifying rivers and streams, raising metals levels and killing fish. The study by World Wide Fund for Nature SA and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research showed that South Africa’s heavy dependence on coal for electricity had a “devastating” effect on the country’s water resources, particularly in light of the fact that only 12% of the country’s land area generated 50% of the country’s river flow. The most affected river was the Olifants which flows through the Kruger National Park in a region of the country where coal mining dates back to the 1890s.

A joint venture between uber-miner Rio Tinto and Chinese partner Chinalco was finalized on Friday. The JV, called CRTX, has been officially registered and cleared to do business in China. The new company's priority will be exploring for copper, with plans to expand into coal and potash, Rio Tinto stated in a news release.

Energy Efficiency News reports internet giant Google has quietly announced that it is to retire its ‘Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal’ or RE<C initiative, which it launched in 2007 saying "other institutions seem better positioned than Google to take this work to the next level." Google spearheaded various projects and made investments in companies working on potentially ‘breakthrough’ technologies, including $168 million for a solar tower project in California and geothermal mapping. As part of its broader renewable energy programme Google has made several investments totaling more than $850 million in the US and Germany.