Beijing takes air pollution by the horns, imposes use of clean coal

FT reports iron ore prices hit a three-month high above $180 a tonne on Thursday as supply outages and strong demand from China underpinned the steelmaking commodity. Started in 2008, derivatives trading in iron ore is up fourfold this year after setting a record in July, but he world’s top three miners – BHP Billiton, Vale and Rio Tinto – control nearly 70% of the 1 billion tonne annual seaborne trade and dominate price talks. BHP this week announced record profits on back of earnings from iron ore, its biggest division, which jumped 122% to $13.3 billion and CEO Marius Kloppers said unlike the situation in coal, global iron ore supplies are being 'overestimated'.

Reuters Africa reports that copper rose 2 percent at a three-week high.

Interfax reports Russia state-owned diamond miner Alrosa is up 22% on the country's trading board for unlisted stocks since it was first quoted there on July 18. The price of US$31,495 per share, implies a market value of $8.6 billion. Alrosa accounts for around 25% of world output and for the full year sales of $4.7 billion is expected. The secretive firm has been feeding the market more information recently in anticipation of a 2012 public offering that seeks to raise up to $3 billion.

24/7 Wall St says the global diamond mining industry may be one of the world’s best-kept secrets and diamond mining is not unlike the oil business, where about 100 massive fields supply about half the world’s oil.

Gold for December delivery fell more than $50 to $1,710 an ounce in afternoon trade in London on Thursday, bring its losses since the record high of Monday to 10%, the worst slump since March 2008. On Wednesday, the Chicago stock exchange operator CME followed a move by the Shanghai Gold Exchange by increasing the margin requirement as a way to “ensure adequate collateral coverage.” The minimum cash deposit to borrow from brokers to trade gold futures will rise 27% to $9,450 per 100-ounce contract at the end of today. Silver slumped as much as 35% in London in about three weeks from its April 25 record of $49.79 an ounce after CME announced margin increases.

South Africa's Impala Platinum Holdings (Implats) said on Thursday that its headline earnings for the 2011 financial year rose 41% as it reaped the benefit of rising prices. The world's second-largest producer of the metal also said Thursday that it expects output in 2012 to be steady or slightly lower on the year and that costs will likely rise. Implats accounts for close to 30% of global supply of the precious metal sometimes referred to as white gold, used in vehicle emission systems to reduce pollution and for the manufacture of jewellery. Prices for platinum climbed throughout the year from just over US$1,500 per ounce to end at about US$1,800 per ounce.

The U.S. State Department's final environmental review of a proposed Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline will affirm an earlier finding that the project will have "limited adverse environmental impacts," The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

One of the largest mining companies operating in northern Peru says that a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Peru Wednesday didn't interrupt operations. Roque Benavides, chief executive of precious metals mining company Compania de Minas Buenaventura SA (BVN, BUENAVC1.Vl), said in an email message he wasn't aware of any damage from the earthquake on its operations in northern Peru.

Amid pressure from the Greens for the government to make the mining tax even harsher, the Prime Minister today urged Tony Abbott to force the mining industry to share the benefits of the boom. “Is this really a time for anybody to come to this parliament and say the MRRT should be opposed ... in view of the profitability of mines and the pressures we know are on other sections of the economy because of the high Aussie dollar?” she said. “That is a strategy for wrecking.”