Australia’s mining project pipeline dwarfs other countries

Atlantic Coal plc, the AIM listed open cast coal production and processing company with activities in Pennsylvania, USA, is pleased to announce a production update for the three months ended 31 March 2011 from the Stockton Colliery (‘Stockton'), its opencast anthracite operation in Pennsylvania. During the quarter, Atlantic mined 120,850 tons of run-of-mine coal (‘ROM') and removed 658,785 bank cubic yards (BCYs) of overburden. 62,000 tons of ROM coal was washed which produced 28,376 tons of clean coal.

Teck announced on Saturday that it had reached a settlement deal with Local 9346 of the United Steelworkers of America to end the strike at the company's Elkview operation. According to a company statement, the parties will recommend the memorandum of settlement to their respective groups. The union ratification vote is scheduled for Thursday, April 7, 2011. If the agreement is ratified, production at the mine could resume by Friday, April 8, 2011.

Xstrata and Chugoku Electric have settled an annual coal contract for the Japanese fiscal year starting April 1 at a record level of around $130 per tonne, over 30 percent higher than last year's contract, sources told Reuters on Friday.

The vast majority of Australia's coal mines will not face materially higher costs under a polluter-pays scheme designed to reduce carbon emissions, according to Treasury Department documents released by the government on Friday.

SouthGobi Resources Ltd. (TSX:SGQ)(HK:1878) announced today that new, independent estimates prepared by Minarco-MineConsult ("MMC"), have updated coal resources and proven and probable mineral reserves contained at the company's Ovoot Tolgoi Complex, (comprised of the Ovoot Tolgoi Coal Mine and the Ovoot Tolgoi Underground Deposit). Independent estimates for coal resources have also been updated by MMC for the company's Soumber Deposit (comprised of the Soumber Field and the Biluut Field).

Grande Cache Coal Corporation (TSX:GCE) ("Grande Cache Coal") has reached an agreement with Westshore Terminals Limited Partnership to exclusively handle Grande Cache Coal's annual coal tonnages that it ships through a West Coast port from April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2022. The commercial terms of the agreement are confidential.

Global miner Rio Tinto lowered the acceptance condition on its A$3.9 billion ($4 billion) offer for Riversdale Mining on Tuesday after entering into talks with Brazil's CSN , a major Riversdale shareholder.

Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, the General Director and Chairman of the Management Board of MMC Norilsk Nickel (the Company) met with the President of the Republic of South Africa Jakob Zuma in RSA. The meeting was held as part of the General Director's business visit to the Republic of South Africa. The parties discussed further development of the Company's projects in RSA.

Diversified mining behemoth BHP Billiton is expected to pour billions of dollars into Australia in an effort to expand its iron ore and coal facilities, says a report from AFP: Mining giant BHP Billiton said Friday it would pour billions of dollars into expanding its coal and iron ore operations in Australia, key commodities that are driving the boom in Asian economies.