Sibanye Gold wants more platinum assets, but also eying base metals, coal, uranium

Rio Tinto and Chinalco will be positioning their drills in Mainland China, the two companies announced today, in a new exploration joint venture to operate under the name Chinalco Rio Tinto Exploration Co. Ltd. (CRTX). According to a press release issued by Rio Tinto, the primary focus of CRTX will be copper exploration, with coal and potash to be considered later.

Mining giants warned Australia on Wednesday that its planned carbon-reduction scheme could cost the industry as much as $25 billion through 2020, cut coal production by a third and send investment in that sector tumbling 13 percent. "Australia is walking the plank," Seamus French, who runs the coal division of miner Anglo-American Plc , told a conference, a day after the Australian government's climate-change adviser suggested how carbon emissions should be taxed.

The world's biggest consumer of steel is ready to raise the stakes. Steel demand in China is expected to rise by around 25% by the year 2015, to a huge 750 million metric tonnes. To ensure an adequate supply position, China is set to create three iron ore mining groups, with an output capacity of 100 million tonnes each. Six other groups with a capacity of 30 million tonnes are to be cobbled together to ensure steady supplies. Iron ore is the principal raw material used to make steel.

America West Resources, Inc. (OTCBB: AWSR), a domestic compliant coal producer with mining operations in Central Utah, today announced that it has successfully completed mine development and commenced full production at Horizon Coal Mine, located in Carbon County about 120 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, Utah. It is estimated that there is more than 16 million recoverable tons of high quality, thermal coal reserves under lease at the Horizon Mine. Over the past 36 months, America West has focused on implementing a mine development strategy utilizing a room and pillar mining approach to excavating coal deposits from the 1,640 acre mining leasehold.

Top coal consumer China should see import demand more than double in the next four years and India will be close behind as both hoover up supplies on international markets to feed rapidly growing power industries, industry executives said on Monday. China's thermal coal imports could rise to 200 million tonnes in 2015 from around 90 million tonnes in 2011, Neil Dhar, executive vice president of trading house Noble Group, told the Coaltrans Asia conference.

Top coal consumer China should see import demand more than double in the next four years and India will be close behind as both hoover up supplies on international markets to feed rapidly growing power industries, industry executives said on Monday. China's thermal coal imports could rise to 200 million tonnes in 2015 from around 90 million tonnes in 2011, Neil Dhar, executive vice president of trading house Noble Group, told the Coaltrans Asia conference.

Engineering work has begun at a coal-fired power station on the banks of the Thames in England, UK that could turn it into the world's largest biomass plant with almost no carbon emissions. The owner of the Tilbury power station, previously scheduled for shut down in 2015 under new EU environmental regulations, says it hopes to produce up to 750 megawatts of green power by winter. Last week it was reported that the approval of new rules for air pollution, water pollution, and waste disposal in the US could result in the retirement of between 35 and 70 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired power generation throughout that country.

Australia's government urged companies on Monday to tighten vigilance over cyber attacks launched offshore against some of the world's biggest resource firms and other businesses, warning high-tech threats were intensifying. Lockheed Martin Corp , the U.S. government's top information technology provider, raised concern about cyber hacking at the weekend, complaining of a pattern of frequent attacks on it from around the world.

The $7.1 billion merger of coal miners Massey Energy Co (MEE.N) and Alpha Natural Resources Inc (ANR.N) should be blocked or Massey's board will avoid responsibility for their reckless management, a shareholder attorney told a court on Thursday. Several pension funds that invested in Massey have sued to block the vote next week by shareholders of the two companies.