Australia’s Port Hedland iron ore shipments to China rise 2.4 pct in May

Drill results of the agreed upon regions estimated to at 540 million tonnnes of thermal coal.

Canada-based Nautilus Minerals Inc. (TSX:NUS)(OTCQX:NUSMF)(AIM:NUS) said Monday that despite several meetings with Papua New Guinea's government representatives in the last two weeks, the company is still battling authorities in regards to its obligation to complete the agreement reached in March last year for Nautilus Solwara 1 copper project.

US-based L&L Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: LLEN), a company with five-year track record of profitable coal operations in China, announced it has entered into an MOU to acquire the Lashu Mine in HeZhang County, Guizhou Province.

Australian environment minister, Tony Burke, has told GVK and #4 mining billionaire Gina Rinehart to improve four areas of their $6.4 billion Alpha Coal project if they want to gain Federal environmental approval.

"Natural resources companies with a pipeline of, say, five projects in five different countries are now likely to build just two or three of those. Thus, executives have the power to cherry pick which combination of country and project offers the best returns."

Apart from developments in Japan and the expiry of the Russia-US nuclear weapons agreement Beijing restarting its construction programme after a review will support oxide prices.

Gold Fields Ltd. may have to settle for a shorter than planned mine life for a gold project in the Philippines due to permit restrictions, a government official said.

Kyrgyzstan's economy will grow by barely a quarter of the 7.5 percent originally forecast because of the collapse in output from the nation's flagship venture with Canada's Centerra Gold.

Indonesia will not be righting the perception that it's a place safe for miners after the country's supreme court said it will not hear Churchill Mining's (LON:CHL) appeal in its two-year legal battle to get compensation for a coal project that the company says was unfairly seized.