Coal’s collapse crowns winners and losers from China to the US

Fed up with paying high prices for iron ore, China is seeking out new supplies of the crucial steelmaking ingredient. The Australian reports that China is increasing iron ore imports from countries outside the major producing regions of Australia and Brazil to diversify supply away from the players that dominate the sector: The economic powerhouse has reported that iron ore imports from countries other than Australia, Brazil, India and South Africa had increased by up to 4 per cent in the first half of this year, compared with the same period last year.

Ten miners are confirmed dead in a coal mine flooding in Southwest China's Sichuan province, with two others still missing, local authorities said Saturday.

Another wave of Chinese acquisitions is expected soon as the Asian superpower seeks to diversify investments beyond the underperforming greenback, and as share price falls translate to cheaper purchases. Mergers and acquisitions consultant Andrew Thomson, a former Howard government minister, said that there had been a change of sentiment in Beijing lately and Chinese investment was expected to step up very soon.

The Globe and Mail reports on Friday that MEG Energy, a small oil sands developer partly owned by China's CNOOC, has ponied up $100 million to join another Chinese state-owned firm Sinopec as financial backers of a planned pipeline from the oil sands to the northern British Columbia coast. Slowing demand in the US is adding pressure for a go-ahead on the Northern Gateway pipeline that will stretch for more than 1,100km at a cost of $5.5 billion affording Canada world prices for its oil, currently priced against heavily discounted US crude. Regulatory hearings are scheduled to start in January.

Silvercorp Metals was forced on Friday to react to an anonymous letter also sent to the Ontario Securities Commission, presumably from a shorter of the company's stock that alleges a “potential $1.3 billion accounting fraud” at the company. The firm with projects in China and Canada closed down just shy of 10% after five times the usual number of shares changed hands. It had lost as much as 14% of its value earlier in the day after the company also said someone had built up a short position of some 23 million shares over the last two months. The Vancouver company has 175 million shares outstanding and is worth $1.3 billion. Silvercorp is the latest in a string of Canadian companies with Chinese backing and operations being accused of fraud.

The increased investor interest and rebound in prices for Silver have made it the new favorites in Asian commodity exchanges. In China's Hunan Province, a new precious metals exchange focussed on silver began trading from late June while the Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange has started offering a new silver futures contract from July 22.

Delayed for several years owing to the discovery of historical artefacts at the project site, Metallurgical Corporation of China expects to start production at its Aynak copper mine by the end of 2014 Metallurgical Corp of China Ltd (MCC) , China's major

Iron ore could soon become a leading economic indicator in emerging markets such as China, since the absence of speculative froth makes the sandy steelmaking raw material a better gauge of demand than industrial metals like copper.

The capital city will cap its annual coal consumption at 20 million tons by 2015, as part of its plan to release less carbon and further reduce air pollution, the municipal commission of development and reform said on Monday.