Perth-based coal miner Coal of Africa (LON:CZA) has secured a key environmental permit from the South African government, clearing a major hurdle on the way to restarting its Vele coking coal project. The approval will allow the company to proceed with construction work at the site following a year long delay due to environmental issues.

Brokers Collins Stewart and Evolution Securities were upbeat about iron ore producer Ferrexpo (LON:FXPO), which released production figures today. The firm reported numbers for the second quarter of 2011 revealing that pellet production from its own ore had increased 6.9 percent compared to Q1.

The newest Fair Trade standard, gold and associated precious metals, made its debut a little more than a year ago. It promises to improve social and environmental conditions for millions of small and artisanal gold miners around the world.

IPO activity in Western Australia continued to increase post the global financial crisis (GFC), according to new figures released from the Deloitte Corporate Finance survey. Western Australia produced 63 IPOs in the year ending 30 June 2011 (FY11), almost double the 33 IPOs in the previous financial year.

Late last month Ivanhoe Mines received $502 million from Rio Tinto following Rio’s decision to exercise all remaining share-purchase warrants that it holds in Ivanhoe Mines. Assembly of open pit equipment has started - in this case Komatsu dozers. Image of the Oyu Tolgoi complex by Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.

Caterpillar has made a key announcement on the progress of its autonomous truck program. Together with Australian dealer WesTrac, CAT has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Fortescue Metals Group to implement an autonomous mining solution for Fortescue’s new Solomon iron ore mine.

India's GVK Power, a unit of infrastructure major GVK Group, which had inked a deal to purchase two of Hancock Prospecting's thermal coal mines in Australia for around $2.4 billion, is set to raise $1.2 billion as debt to part fund its acquisition. The Hyderabad-based GVK Power has roped in ICICI Bank to syndicating the $1.2 billion loan. Sanjay Reddy, vice chairman of GVK, signed an agreement with Gina Rinehart, chairman of Hancock, earlier in June.

A treasure of gold, jewelry and diamonds worth over $24 billion by some estimates has been unearthed from the vaults of a temple in India. Image is from YouTube news report on the same story.

ProSep announced it was awarded $1.8 million in new contracts to supply a produced water treatment system for installation on a deepwater Gulf of Mexico facility and crude dehydration equipment for two oil sands facilities located in Alberta, Canada.