BHP to exit shale within two years, sell nickel assets

While the jury remains out on exactly what went wrong at certain tsunami-and earthquake-impacted nuclear power reactors in Japan, investors took decisive action on Monday, selling down listed uranium stocks by up to a third. Smaller stocks were especially punished. During Australian trade, Pitchstone Exploration was sold down by 32% on the day. The world's biggest listed uranium producer, Canada's Cameco, fell 12.7% to close at $31.70.

Gold futures rose for the second straight session as Japan’s strongest earthquake on record boosted demand for a haven asset, reports Bloomberg. Palladium fell for an eighth straight session, the longest slump since July 2008. Equities declined worldwide as officials said the death toll from the earthquake and tsunami may top 10,000. Technicians tried to contain damage from a second explosion at a nuclear plant north of Tokyo.

Reuters is reporting that FE Steel, the world's No 5 steelmaker, on Monday halted production at a plant near Tokyo and global fourth-ranked Nippon Steel suspended operations at two small plants: - JFE said shipments from its 10 million tonnes per year Higashi Nihon plant near Tokyo had virtually halted due to a power outage. - JFE resumed operations on Sunday of two blast furnaces at its Higashi Nihon plant, one of its two mainstay plants, which were idled after Friday's quake and tsunami.

Australian uranium counters took a substantial hit on Monday in the wake of the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in […]

As the country still reels from the devastation of a massive earthquake and tsunami, we provide a brief view of where Japan […]

India, ranked among the top five global players in production of several major minerals, is poised for rapid growth in its mining industry - about five percent of the GDP. However, lack of skilled workers is set to hit the industry, creating a demand-supply gap of over 2,200 people by 2025, according to a study on mapping of human resources and skills for the mining industry in India by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has been in the news after the earthquake in Japan cut off the plant’s cooling system. […]

The most active gold contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, February 2012 , inched up after an earthquake of magnitute 8.8 struck the north coast of Japan, while the rubber contract for August 2011 barely moved, dealers said on Friday.

The Wall Street Journal writes that Tata Steel Ltd. expects its raw material costs to increase around 15% in the next fiscal […]