Indian billionaire’s Australian mine plans face further delay

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."

The since departed head of the institute which has staff of 78 was paid in excess of $500,000 per year and the organization racked up more than $54 million in "operational expenses" in the first two years including "conferencing in empire-style Parisian ballrooms" and being entertained by celebrity chefs in Tokyo.

Nova Scotia's Natural Resources Minister, Charlie Parker, is supporting DDV Gold Ltd., an Australian gold company, over a family run Christmas tree farm that doesn't want its land expropriated and turned into an open pit mine.

World number one miner BHP Billiton on Wednesday bought additional exploration plots near its Olympic Dam mine and $30 billion expansion project.

Nathan Tinkler had been widely expected to sell down his 21% stake in Whitehaven Coal, but is instead looking to taking over the business.

Greenpeace takes out ads saying investing in the mega-mine is "risky business" and calls into question the ability of India's GVK to pull off the project as the group "has never built a mine in Australia." State and federals officials call the campaign "deplorable and obnoxious." And that's just this week.

The Australian government launched a Resources Sector Jobs Board so employers can prove they made the job widely available to citizens before they apply for guest workers.