Rio Tinto to boot iron ore chief in fresh management shake-up

The price of importing South African coal has fallen to be nearly on par with Chinese domestic rates, but Chinese buyers are not biting and are asking for discounts of another $4 per tonne at least, trade sources said.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is reassuring NSW coalminers her carbon tax will not stop their sons from following in their footsteps. Ms Gillard is spruiking her carbon price package in the NSW Hunter Valley today. Image is from MystifyMe Concert Photography (Troy).

Coal Services today announced a reduction of 2.78% to workers’ compensation premium rates for the New South Wales coal mining industry, with the target premium rate set at 3.5% (3.6% in 2010/11). This is the latest in a series of reductions that have seen premium rates fall from a high of 11.5% in 2002/03 to the current rate of 3.5%, equating to almost a 70% reduction over 8 years.

Shares of Walter Energy Inc. rose Monday after a Citi analyst began coverage of the coal company by assigning it a "Buy" rating, leading a rally among several coal stocks.

Rescue work in a flooded coal mine in Guizhou Province has been terminated, 14 days after a flood trapped 23 workers underground. The rescue work in Niupeng Mine, located in Pingtang County, was halted at 4 p.m. Saturday. The miners were very unlikely to be alive, according to an assessment by rescue experts. Twenty one workers remain missing while two bodies have been retrieved from the mine. The area where the miners are believed to be has been completely submerged. While 406,000-cubic meters of water had been pumped out during the past 14 days, flood water was still pouring into the pit.

Rescuers have brought to surface the first miner, trapped underground as a result of a landslide that occurred at a coal mine in Russia's republic of Komi, Vorkutaugol spokesman Yevgeny Sukharev said on Sunday. Three miners had been trapped underground as as a result of a landslide that occurred at a coal mine in Russia’s republic of Komi on Saturday, emergencies services said. Seventy miners out of the 73 who were working at the Severnaya mine when the landslide occurred.

After rejecting a deal reached by fellow tribesmen, hundreds of Marri tribesmen backed by their chief blocked transportation of coal from Chamalang in Balochistan Pakistan to other parts of the country on Saturday. The blockade follows weeks of deadly skirmishes for control of the coal fields that hold recoverable reserves more than 500 million tonnes. The high-quality Chamalang coal mines were first discoverd in 1885 (see historic map) when the country was under British rule and a 30-year bloody war between the Pashtoon Luni and Marri tribes over the recoverable reserves were ended only after the Pakistan Army intervened in 2006 and mining could restart. The latest dispute is between the Marri leader who signed the peace treaty with the Luni and the leader of the separatist movement in Balochistan.

Three miners have been trapped underground as as a result of a landslide that occurred at a coal mine in Russia's republic of Komi on Saturday, emergencies services said. Seventy miners out of the 73 who were working at the Severnaya mine when the landslide occurred at around 6 pm local time (14:00 GMT) during a shift change. The three trapped miners are alive, an emergencies services official said. "Rescuers have established connection with one of the trapped miners," he said. "We know for sure that he is alive. He made it clear by rapping that his two colleagues are also alive."

Gloucester Coal has completed two acquisitions designed to create a leading Australian coal miner worth about $2 billion. Gloucester said it had completed the purchase of Donaldson Coal Holdings, which owns three NSW coal mines, from Asian commodities trader Noble Group.