Posts by Brisbane Times:

Green lobby seeks coal mine ban for Cape

Powerful green lobby group The Wilderness Society will pressure Labor and the LNP to rule out coal mining in Cape York ahead of the next Queensland state election. The environmental group expressed alarm on Wednesday at the proliferation of applications

External recruiters in BHP plans despite email scam

BHP Billiton will continue to source workers through external agencies despite a recent legal stoush over a rogue employment scam. The mining giant was forced to take legal action through an arm of the United Nations earlier this year to combat a scam

Zinc or swim when the tide turns

Zinc has long been runt in the litter of base metals, notwithstanding its multitude of uses. But the tide may be turning, with some big-name mine closures in the years ahead getting analysts thinking about the day when the oversupplied market goes into deficit. Goldman Sachs made the point in a recent research note, which posed the question of whether unloved zinc could be the ''next copper,'' given the prospect of a possible shortage from 2013.

Valuations of Australian iron ore companies take a hit after royalty increase

Valuations of iron ore companies have been cut in response to Western Australia's controversial royalty increase, with Andrew Forrest's fast-growing Fortescue Metals taking the biggest hit. The valuation hits were despite the protection from state the protection from state royalty increases that the miners negotiated last year with the federal government in the reworked - and less onerous - minerals resource rent tax.