CHARTS: Maybe India can ignite new commodity supercycle

Global miner BHP Billiton is looking to build a new rail line between some of its inland Australian coal mines and the coast in a move that could threaten dominant coal haulage firm QR National, a newspaper said on Thursday.

The market is expecting BHP Billiton to post record-setting annual profits of $US22.1 billion next week on revenues forecast to be a staggering $71.9 billion. BHP investors, whose stock has hardly moved in a year despite stellar growth rates at the Melbourne-based company, would want to hear if another share buyback will follow the $10 billion round completed in June and any update on its purchase of Petrohawk. The world's biggest miner has a history dating back 150 years and its operations span the globe from potash in Canada (pictured) and coal in South Africa to nickel in Australia and copper in Chile.

Chinese companies mull investing in Romania's nuclear and coal sectors, Mediafax reported after the visit of the Romanian government delegation, headed by PM Emil Boc, to China.

University of Kentucky research into cleaner-burning coal technology received a $19.4 million boost on Monday, most of it from the federal government.

A blast in a coal mine in China killed 10 people, officials said Monday. The blast, due to accumulation of gas inside the mine, took place Sunday night in southwest Guizhou province, Xinhua reported.

Even without a television crew filming every move they make underground, the coal miners who work at Cobalt Coal's Westchester Mine in Big Sandy are running coal and getting better at it according to Mike Crowder, Cobalt's chief executive officer.

Hiroko Kumagai will never forget the day in 1998 when she first stepped inside the red-brick building at the entrance to the closed and shuttered Miyahara shaft in the Miike coal mine. Image from YouTube

The number of deaths caused by coal mine gas explosions in China declined sharply during the first half of this year, coal mine safety authorities said. A total of 245 people died in 62 gas explosions that occurred between January and June this year, a year-on-year reduction of 31.2 and 25.3 percent respectively, the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety said.

China will need large quantities of Australian raw materials as its industrialisation and urbanisation race ahead, despite concerns about weak global economic conditions, Australian Trade Minister Craig Emerson said on Friday. Emerson also hinted that a fall in the Australian dollar amid the volatility that has jolted global financial markets for the past week was good, saying its strong currency had hurt manufacturing and exporters.