Rio Tinto sells its Blair Athol coal mine for less than a bus ticket

David Knox, Santos chief executive, says the expected skills shortage has not yet affected his company. Picture: Calum Robertson Source: News Limited SANTOS chief executive David Knox, whose company is building one of the three $15 billion-plus coal-seam

Police have detained eight people in east China's Shandong Province in connection with a coal mine fire that has trapped 28 miners for more than two weeks, local authorities said Saturday. A total of 91 people were working underground in the Fangbei Coal Mine in the province's city of Zaozhuang on July 6 when an air compression device located in a parking lot 255 meters underground caught fire.

China's coal imports dropped 11.8 percent in the first half of the year to 70.49 million tonnes while exports also fell 13.7 percent to 8.75 million tonnes. During the period, the nation recorded a net import of 61.74 million tonnes of coal. The figure fell 11.5 percent year-on-year amid surging international coal prices, according to figures released Friday by the China National Coal Association.

Climate Change Minister Greg Combet has promised that Queensland coal mines will be compensated for losses caused by a carbon tax, saying pollution intensive areas like Gladstone will receive significant compensation.

Canada’s mining industry continues to rally from the recent global recession, with this year’s production currently exceeding that of 2010, reports government department Natural Resources Canada (NRCan).

JSW Energy Ltd., the Indian power producer controlled by the billionaire Jindal family, delayed expansion of an electricity project because of high coal costs. The company will shelve a planned 3,200-megawatt expansion at a plant in Ratnagiri in the western state of Maharashtra as it waits for coal-pricing “clarity” from Indonesia and Australia, Chief Executive Officer Lalit Kumar Gupta said in an interview in Mumbai yesterday.

Workers at BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP)’s Escondida copper mine, the world’s biggest, began striking as coal miners at the company’s Australian operations prepared to escalate industrial action. The strike by all union members at the northern Chilean mine began at 8 p.m. New York time yesterday with the changing of a shift and will run through to 8 p.m. today, which may lead to about 3,000 metric tons of lost copper production, union leader Jose Vidal said by telephone. Image of BHP's Escondida mine is by BHP Billiton.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg who has a personal fortune of some $18 billion joined with the environmental lobby group Sierra Club on Thursday in a $50 million, four-year plan to cut one-third of US coal-fired power plants. "If we are going to get serious about reducing our carbon footprint in the United States, we have to get serious about coal, " Bloomberg said. Rolling Stone reported that he was standing on a boat on the Potomac river not far from a 60-year old coal-fired power station to drive his message home.

Cliffs Natural Resources’ plans to restart coal mining operations at its Pinnacle coal mine in West Virginia after a major setback with regulatory agencies turning down its remediation plan to address the carbon monoxide detected in the mine. The company had to shut down operations at the underground mine in late May after high levels of the poisonous gas were detected.