CHART: High flying metals to fall back to earth in 2018

A legal clash between Brazilian mining giant Vale (NYX:VALE) and Australia's Aquila Resources (ASX: AQA) has taken a step towards resolution this morning after the companies announced they’ve reached an agreement on coal shipments from their co-owned Isaac Plains mine in Queensland.

Chinese firms have been snapping up copper, uranium, iron ore and coking coal assets around the world, but have yet to make a big splash in nickel.

India is hoping to bury the hatchet with its historical rival Pakistan, at least enough for both sides to benefit from a massive iron ore deposit in Afghanistan.

A clash over infrastructure assets is shaping up in northern Quebec, pitting the interests of two corporate titans against a group of junior miners.

None of mining's top companies escaped the carnage on Thursday after a survey of manufacturing in China showed activity slowed for a fifth straight month.

Beijing launched the new spot price platform in January in a bid to shift the balance of power in price negotiations away from the big three.

The 30% tax on iron ore and coal producers passed by the Australian government may raise the prices of those commodities but will also shrink margins of steelmakers, analysts say.

Australia's resources and energy commodity export earnings will continue to grow over the medium term to reach a record $225 billion in 2016-17, said today the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE).

The government of Quebec, Canada’s most indebted province, is banking on a royalty windfall from its natural-resources sector, especially mining, to help begin its long climb out of the red.