Source: The Australian THE introduction of new taxes and concerns about the global economic outlook will not slow mining investment in Australia, forecast to reach $80 billion a year by 2015, according to a report. Independent forecaster BIS Shrapnel s...

The joint bidders for Macarthur coal must soon make a decision Source: Bloomberg PEABODY Energy and ArcelorMittal must today decide whether or not to take any action to try to get some momentum into their $4.8 billion joint cash bid for Macarthur Coal....

BHP Billiton is close to kicking off spending on its huge Port Hedland capacity expansion, as it bets China's steel mills will remain hungry enough to consume up to an extra 200 million tonnes of iron ore a year from BHP alone.

ASTON Resources has sold another stake in its flagship Maules Creek coal project to a Japanese-backed company for $350 million to help fund development of the project. The Brisbane-based company announced yesterday it had entered into a conditional

Rio Tinto has shortlisted nine parties in bidding for a South African coal mine that it acquired through its near-$US4billion takeover of Riversdale Mining, and hopes to conclude a sale by the year-end, said Steve Mallyon, a special advisor to the Anglo-Australian miner. Any deal for the Riversdale Anthracite Colliery in KwaZulu Natal province, which is producing about 750,000 tonnes of coal a year, could value the asset at around $US150 million ($149m), he said.

European stocks plunged and the euro tumbled, as investors piled into safe-haven assets amid rising fears over Europe's sovereign debt crisis and economic growth on both sides of the Atlantic.

Another wave of Chinese acquisitions is expected soon as the Asian superpower seeks to diversify investments beyond the underperforming greenback, and as share price falls translate to cheaper purchases. Mergers and acquisitions consultant Andrew Thomson, a former Howard government minister, said that there had been a change of sentiment in Beijing lately and Chinese investment was expected to step up very soon.

Sandfire Resources managing director Karl Simich says the company's looming $360 million finance facility is still on track for completion soon, despite turmoil in global markets.

A Deloitte Access Economics analysis, commissioned by the Minerals Council of Australia and to be released today, estimates the industry's tax burden was about 50 per cent higher than Treasury estimates made during last year's bruising battle over the Rudd government's resource super-profits tax.

You don't get to be the head of a $US50 billion investment fund without knowing a thing or two about persuasive sales techniques. When Mark Mobius, the executive chairman of the Templeton Emerging Markets Group, took to the stage at Hong Kong's famed Foreign Correspondents Club last week, he delivered his signature argument for investing in emerging markets.

MINING magnate Gina Rinehart has taken a small stake in listed coal explorer Carabella Resources, sparking speculation she is planning a takeover bid to expand her interests in Queensland. Shares in Carabella shot up 5.5 per cent to $2.10 after 917,434 shares in the company...representing 0.74% of its total shares on issue was acquired by a company associated with Australia's richest person.

BASE Resources says it is close to announcing offtake deals for Kenya's biggest mining project, the $US256 million ($239m) Kwale mineral sands operation. Base managing director Tim Carstens said Dupont and Cristal Global, the world's two largest titanium dioxide producers, were among parties interested in offtake. One deal "that I hope to announce next week, will account for about 35 per cent of our revenue and they are a big name", Mr Carstens said yesterday at the Africa Downunder mining conference in Perth.