In The New York Review of Books, George Soros outlines some of the painful decisions that the leaders must make to resolve the financial crisis in Europe, mainly the form of a orderly withdrawl from the Euro.

George Soros hit the number seven spot on the list of Forbes richest Americans. Forbes announced the list on Wednesday. His previous position was position number 14. Forbes says he is worth $22 billion this year, up $7.8 billion from last year. More disclosure about his financial holdings helped Soros climb the list.

Without international agreements to limit greenhouse gas emissions, a new energy report sees world coal consumption taking off, rising from 139 quadrillion Btu in 2008 to 209 quadrillion Btu in 2035. The U.S. Energy Information Administration released its International Energy Outlook 2011 on Monday. While OECD countries, like the U.S., Canada, Australia and Japan, show a flat to declining consumption in coal, the non-OECD countries, namely China and India, show the demand for coal-powered energy exploding.

Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold reported on Wednesday that the strike at its Grasberg operations in Papua, Indonesia, which began Sept. 15, is costing the company about 3 million pounds of copper and 5 thousand ounces of gold for each day of the work stoppage. The company says that it is negotiating a two-year extension of its bi-annual collective labour agreement, which is scheduled for renewal on September 30, 2011.

While all eyes may be on the sovereign debt crisis in Europe or the ongoing jobs and budget battle in the U.S., Ian Bremmer says that the biggest economic concern is China, the world's leading importer of both copper and iron ore. Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, a global political risk research and consulting firm, hears lots of criticism about the hard decisions are being put off in both Europe and the U.S., and the literal can is being kicked down the road. "The largest can that is getting kicked furthest down the road right now is clearly in Beijing," says Bremmer who spoke to Bloomberg last week.

Huffington Post reports that iconic Canadian comedian, Dave Thomas, is opposed to the Keystone pipeline. Dave Thomas played Doug McKenzie on the hit comedy program SCTV. (Doug is pictured on the right.) The Keystone pipeline is a proposed $7 billion project that would connect Alberta with US Gulf Coast refineries.

After declaring a 730,000 tonne increase of contained copper in mineral resources at Kennecott Utah Copper, Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) expects to head underground. Rio Tinto says that the mineral resource, known as the North Rim Skarn, is a high-grade copper-gold skarn deposit located approximately 300 metres below the current Bingham Canyon pit, the world's deepest open pit mine. The company has committed US$165 million to complete the next stage of exploration and development studies by 2014.

Peter Grandich has high praise for the appointment of Don Coxe to Spanish Mountain's board of directors.

Despite order books that are full and robust commodity prices, Rio Tinto says that customer sentiment is now more cautious and physical markets are softer than they were six months ago. Executives from Rio Tinto, one of the world's largest diversified miners, voiced their concerns at an investor seminar in London and New York on Tuesday. The company is finding that customers are concerned over the health of the OECD economies and persistent volatility in financial markets.

Agnico Eagle Mines (TSE:AEM) announced on Monday that it had acquired Grayd Resources (CVE:GYD) for $275 million. Grayd is a junior exploration and development company with gold and silver projects in Mexico. Agnico said the offer price of $2.80 per Grayd share represents a premium of 65.7% to the volume weighted average price of Grayd shares on the TSX Venture Exchange for the 20-day period ended September 16, 2011.

Premier Christy Clark announced on Monday a $15-million contribution for a $90-million road rail utility corridor project, phase one of a planned $300-million development at the Port of Prince Rupert. The $90-million Road Rail Utility Corridor Project will expand Ridley Island's terminal capacity to help meet growing demand from Asia for Canada's natural resources. The project includes construction of new inbound and outbound rail lines and the extension of on-site rail and utilities. The BC government says that the investment will create over 570 direct construction jobs over the life of the project and will further provide up to 4,000 operational jobs after all construction is complete.

The "very slow-moving train wreck" in Greece and Europe is taking down gold and the markets. Worries that Greece may default on its debt led to the Australian stock market, measured by the S&P/ASX 200, to close down 1.64%. The Hang Seng Index was off 2.76%. Mid-day, both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 are off 1.7%.