Rio Tinto fully out of coal sector with $2.25bn Kestrel mine sale

China will need large quantities of Australian raw materials as its industrialisation and urbanisation race ahead, despite concerns about weak global economic conditions, Australian Trade Minister Craig Emerson said on Friday. Emerson also hinted that a fall in the Australian dollar amid the volatility that has jolted global financial markets for the past week was good, saying its strong currency had hurt manufacturing and exporters.

Xstrata has approved the commencement of an AUD47 million (USD50 million) pre-feasibility study into the development of a large multi-commodity open pit mine on the existing Xstrata Mount Isa Mines footprint. In a joint statement, Xstrata Zinc Australia Chief Operating Officer Brian Hearne and Xstrata Copper North Queensland Chief Operating Officer Steve de Kruijff said the development of a large scale zinc-lead-copper pit has the potential to extend the life of the combined operations to beyond 2060.

© The Cairns Post THE $1.5 billion Rio Tinto Alcan bauxite mine expansion at Weipa has wide reaching economic, employment and export benefits which have been underestimated by the business community. A business leader has admitted that many did not

BHP Billiton is confident about sustained growth in China despite the worldwide market turmoil, Chairman of the world's biggest miner said on Wednesday. Speaking at a business lunch in Sydney, BHP Billiton Chairman Jacques Nasser said the global market turmoil has not changed the company's view of sustained growth in China. China buys about 30 percent of BHP's exports, and Nasser says the company is positive about China's future.

AUSTRALIAN miner Cockatoo Coal has put its Taabinga thermal coal project in Queensland up for sale, an informed source said today, in the latest sign that deal-flow in the coal sector is accelerating. Sydney-based Cockatoo - one of a handful of listed Australian companies with producing coal mines - has appointed advisory firm RFC Corporate Finance to handle the sale of the Taabinga project, which has an estimated 252 million tonnes of undeveloped coal resources.

Leighton Holdings has sold mining services provider HWE Mining to BHP Billiton. 9News reports that Leighton has signed a heads of agreement for the sale of HWE, which accounts for close to 70% of BHP's iron ore mining in Western Australia. The sale is worth $1.1 billion, along with $1.4 billion worth of contracts in hand.

A tough-talking mining company CEO is warning that Australia suffers from "rich country's disease" and is in danger of becoming a welfare state unless workers discover a "hunger for excellence." The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Andrew Michelmore — the former head of Western Mining Corporation and now chief executive of Chinese government dominated MMG, based in Melbourne — said he lamented the immobility of the Australian workforce and the resulting skills shortage in remote areas such as Western Australia's Pilbara.

After the S&P downgrade announced Friday evening, North American markets opened Monday and tumbled. The Australian stock market, measured by the S&P/ASX 200, finished the day down 2.91%, while the S&P/TSX composite was down 3.4% in morning trading to 11,796, its lowest level since August 2010. Gold breached $1,710 an ounces before settling back to $1,700/oz.

Rio Tinto and Mitsubishi are being pressured to offer a special dividend to seal a $1.49 billion attempt to mop up the shares of 150-year-old Hunter Valley miner Coal & Allied that they don't already own. The pair, which already have a combined 85.91 per cent stake in the target, made an indicative offer of $122 a share to Coal & Allied's independent directors on the weekend.