The head of the world's largest manufacturer of mining equipment says he does not see a return to recession in the United States. “I don’t see a return to high growth, but I think we’re going to bump along,” Doug Oberhelman, CEO of Caterpillar Inc., told the FT at the company's headquarters in Peoria, Illinois, this week.

Little progress has been made in increasing renewable energy usage, but Indonesia has enormous renewable energy potential. Geothermal energy could readily meet up to 40 percent of Indonesia’s energy needs.

Reeling under raw material shortages and the extension of a mining ban, the multi-billion dollar Karnataka steel industry is in the doldrums due to continuing uncertainty over iron ore supply to their plants. The jittery industry was not even optimistic over the release of 25 million tonne (MT) of iron ore, lying at various mines in the southern state, as the modalities are yet to be worked out.

Australian gold production has risen by 10 percent as new mines came into production and ancient operations revived. The nation’s gold output in the year to June 30 totalled 270 tonnes, up 24 tonnes on the previous financial year, according to Melbourne-based gold sector consultants Surbiton Associates

Two partners in the world's top aluminium producer, UC RUSAL , want to sell their stake to a third tycoon, Alisher Usmanov, owner of an iron ore miner and shareholder in Norilsk Nickel, Vedomosti reported on Friday.

Unscrupulous stock tout services have been pumping U.S. junior exploration companies by suggesting that Vancouver-based senior gold producer Goldcorp Inc. is about to buy them out at huge premiums to their prevailing market prices. The latest tout service to do this is Stock Castle, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fidelity Ltd., which is said to be located in the British Virgin Islands.

Russia's government-owned diamond producer is reporting sales of rough and polished diamonds of $2.2 billion for the first half of 2011.

Oil sands miners in northern Alberta are pooling new knowledge to tackle an old foe: tailings. It's an unusual collaboration in an industry that is famously secretive for fear of losing an edge to competitors. The StarTribune reports on how companies participating in the Oil Sands Tailings Consortium — a 7-member group formed last December to share tailings research and technology — are spending over $90 million this year to address the common problem of how to dispose of wet tailings left behind when bitumen is extracted from oil sands.

Global miner BHP Billiton Ltd is looking to build a new rail line between some of its inland Australian coal mines and the coast in a move that could threaten dominant coal haulage firm QR National Ltd, a newspaper said.