Growth in Chinese thermal coal imports won’t last

South African coal miners started wage talks with unions and a mediator on Wednesday in a bid to prevent stoppages that could threaten supply to power plants and limit exports, while a fuel sector strike threatening the economy entered its tenth day. Africa's largest economy relies on coal for almost all its power, but state-owned utility Eskom has said it has enough coal in stock to last 41 days, so a strike would have to be lengthy to affect its operations.

BHP Billiton Ltd says it achieved production records in four commodities in 2010/11, with production of iron ore posting its 11th consecutive record. BHP said annual production of iron ore was 134.406 million tonnes (MT), up eight per cent on 2009/10.

DAYARNE SMITH Muswellbrook Shire mayor Martin Rush has urged Anglo American to tell the community if it no longer plans to pursue the Drayton South project. The company’s Drayton mine is due to close in 2015, but the company has applied for state

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.