Can Donald Trump really save U.S. coal?

Reuters reports 50,000 protesters battled police in Chile's capital on Thursday, the second day of a two-day strike against unpopular President Sebastian Pinera. A recent poll put the right-wing leader's approval rating at only 26%, below even that of dictator General Pinochet, who ruled the country for 17 years from 1973. The protests follows recent strikes in the copper sector over pay and a campaign against a massive coal mine on an island in Patagonia amid accusations that billionaire Pinera’s shareholding in the developer, Copec, constitutes a serious conflict of interest.

Every day up to 400 trucks leave the coal stockpile Kohlenhuck of Deutsche Steinkohle in Kamp-Lintfort, Germany. A special FRUTIGER De-Mucking System washes the trucks before they enter the public road.

Amid pressure from the Greens for the government to make the mining tax even harsher, the Prime Minister today urged Tony Abbott to force the mining industry to share the benefits of the boom. “Is this really a time for anybody to come to this parliament and say the MRRT should be opposed ... in view of the profitability of mines and the pressures we know are on other sections of the economy because of the high Aussie dollar?” she said. “That is a strategy for wrecking.”

UK Coal posted its first profit in four years yesterday after higher production and coal prices sparked a turnaround at its collieries.

BHP Billiton reported record annual results and beat analyst estimates in the process, after prices of copper, iron ore and coal reached all-time highs because of demand from China. Profit at the world's biggest miner surged 86% for the 12 months $23.6 billion, a full $1.4 billion ahead of expectations, on the back of earnings from iron ore, its biggest division, which jumped 122% to $13.3 billion.

Macarthur Coal Ltd. has nearly doubled its full year profit and repeated its advice to shareholders to reject a takeover offer from U.S energy giant Peabody Energy Corp. and Luxembourg-based steelmaker ArcelorMittal. The company's 241 million Australian dollars ($253 million) profit for the fiscal year through June announced Wednesday was up 93 per cent from AU$125 million in the previous year despite reduced production due to record rainfall.

Twenty-six miners remained trapped Tuesday in a flooded coal mine in northeast China, Xinhua reported. The illegal coal mine in Boli county of Heilongjiang province belonged to the Hengtai Coal Mining Co. Ltd.

World crude steel production for the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association was 127 million tonnes in July 2011. This is 11.5% YoY higher than July 2010.

Mining giant BHP Billiton has defended as "effective" its strict office etiquette policy, which bans workers from eating pungent food, throwing jackets on their chairs or leaving Post-it notes on their monitors or keyboards after hours. The company outlined its "Office Environment Standard" in a memo emailed to employees in Brisbane this month.