A new emerging miner, looking to list in Australia, plans to reopen the NSW Hillgrove antimony-gold project to cash in on rapidly increasing prices.

The unavoidable quantum of the increase in BHP Billiton's revenue and profit numbers will doubtless provide verdant pasture for the gathering community of critics of both the Global Australian and the increasingly wealthy industry it leads.

Gloucester Coal has increased first-half profit by 67 per cent as three recent takeovers give the miner growth opportunities. The profit surge came despite a reduction in production due to adverse weather and delays in extension projects.

Out of sight, out of mind seems to be the rule for many local investors when it comes to the platinum group metals. But those who do invest in this sector should hear the latest outlook. In a nutshell, the long term is great due to rising demand for cars.

Macmahon has come within a whisker of posting a full-year loss due to writedowns and the impact of Australia's wet season.

This time it's different. Miners have clashed with farmers and locals over the years, but never like this. The battle between coal-seam gas and coal versus the rest has grabbed the national headlines and now even drawn Tony Abbott into the mess.

Australian-born Dow Chemical chief Andrew Liveris in Perth at the weekend. He is urging the Gillard government to do more to boost the manufacturing sector.

AUSTRALIAN miner Cockatoo Coal has put its Taabinga thermal coal project in Queensland up for sale, an informed source said today, in the latest sign that deal-flow in the coal sector is accelerating. Sydney-based Cockatoo - one of a handful of listed Australian companies with producing coal mines - has appointed advisory firm RFC Corporate Finance to handle the sale of the Taabinga project, which has an estimated 252 million tonnes of undeveloped coal resources.

The potential joint bid by Rio Tinto and Mitsubishi Development for Coal & Allied Industries (CAIL) is a curious beast because it proposes to involve a mechanism normally used to avoid a takeover.

Rio Tinto and Mitsubishi are being pressured to offer a special dividend to seal a $1.49 billion attempt to mop up the shares of 150-year-old Hunter Valley miner Coal & Allied that they don't already own. The pair, which already have a combined 85.91 per cent stake in the target, made an indicative offer of $122 a share to Coal & Allied's independent directors on the weekend.

One in four parliamentarians in Queensland's state government hold shares in mining or resources companies or have accepted sponsored travel from them this term.

Call it the two-speed mining boom. On the one hand, there are all the active miners and explorers attending Diggers & Dealers in Kalgoorlie who - provided they have a viable project - can lay their hands on enough money to get into operation. But according to the ASX website, there are more than a dozen resource floats languishing with "to be advised" sitting alongside their listing dates.