The Greens' push to shut down the coal industry could severely undermine the nation's economy and sacrifice 200,000 jobs, new economic modelling warns. As the party takes to Federal Parliament today with unprecedented numbers and wielding the balance of power in the Senate, fresh research finds that leader Bob Brown's policy to phase out coal mining would slash GDP by up to $36 billion a year.

Rescuers were racing against time on Saturday to reach 40 miners buried underground in two separate coal mine disasters which have already killed three people in south China. Work crew operated at least 17 pumps at Niupeng Mine in rural Guizhou Province to release water from the flooded mine before rescuers could be sent down the pit.

Canadian base metal and coal miners were the nation's economic bright spot in April, according to report from Statistics Canada released on Thursday. The study, which looked at gross domestic product by industry, found that mining grew strongly while the rest of the economy was mostly flat.

Botswana Diamonds (LON:BOD) issued a mixed update on its exploration activities in Botswana but believes there are enough positives for it to press ahead with work aimed at furthering the assessment of its key prospects, most notably the AK9 structure, which is believes to hold considerable upside potential. The company is currently intent on refining the grade per ton and value per carat of diamonds discovered by prior work in kimberlites AK9, AK8 and BK5 in Botswana.

Gold futures on the COMEX Division of the New York Mercantile Exchange slumped on Friday, dropping below the key mark 1,500 U.S. dollars, as safe-haven demand further weakened after Greece made progress on reducing its debt default risk. The most active gold contract for August delivery shed 20.2 U.S. dollars, or 1.3 percent, to 1482.6 dollars per ounce, the lowest settlement for the latest six weeks.

Mexican mining production rose 22% in April from the year-ago month, led by a big jump in output of copper, the National Statistics Institute, or Inegi, said Thursday. Copper production rose 77% to 32,324 metric tons.

Police have arrested two men in connection with a theft of platinum worth over NT$44 million from a high-tech company in Hsinchu County, officials said yesterday. Police also managed to recover 18 kilograms of platinum from the suspects during the arrests in Taoyuan

The Chilean Federation of Copper Workers announced a strike for July 11 to oppose plans to privatize the state-owned National Copper Company (Codelco). The management of Codelco, the biggest copper producer in the world, is preparing for privatization, said Raimundo Espinoza, a leader of the workers' federation, FTC.

Singapore's Nava Bharat Pte plans to start construction of a 300 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Zambia by the end of 2011 and complete it by 2014, company director Ashwin Devineni said on Saturday. "We have finalised the detailed layout of the power plant initially for 300 MW and later for an additional 300 MW," Devineni said in a statement.