A gas leak in a coal mine in northern China has killed at least 18 miners.
The disaster at the Dahuiyao Coal Mine in Shanxi Province began Friday with a collapse, Xinhua, the official government news agency, reported. That left a closed part of the mine open and set off a fire that released lethal gases.
There [...]

Indian utility Tata Power Co. Ltd. is in talks to buy coal mines in Australia, Indonesia and South Africa to tie up fuel supplies for its proposed 15,000-megawatt capacity expansion, a top official said.
The company, which supplies power to the financial hub of Mumbai, India’s capital New Delhi and to smaller cities, is pursuing projects [...]

At a time when the United States wants to reduce the amount of nuclear material washing around the world, one of Washington’s major allies, Australia, is on the verge of expanding its production and export of uranium.
The Australian prime minister, John Howard, one of President Bush’s staunchest allies, says the country should also begin enriching [...]

For Evy Hambro, who manages the world’s biggest mining fund at Merrill Lynch & Co., small is profitable.
Hambro steered the $6.6 billion fund to the best performance this year among 270 peers tracked by Standard & Poor’s by increasing investments in small and mid-sized companies. Shares of Hambro’s top performers, Perilya Ltd. of Australia and [...]

Minco Mining & Metals Corporation has decided not to proceed with the proposed distribution of up to 6.5 million Minco Silver Corporation (”Minco Silver”) common shares held by the Company (the “Proposed Distribution”).
The Proposed Distribution has proven to be a complex and costly process, particularly to the Company’s US shareholder base, and would have subjected [...]

Shen Hua Group Corporation Limited plans to put three liquefied coal projects into production in 2011 and 2012 with a capacity of producing 10 million tons of petroleum a year.
The three projects, in Yulin city of West China’s Shaanxi Province and two in Yinchuan, capital of northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, will each be able [...]

Coal is in the running to overtake oil as the best-performing energy investment.
That, at least, is the emerging consensus from a range of speculators, investors and giant corporations including Wilbur Ross, the billionaire bankruptcy specialist; BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company; and Merrill Lynch, the U.S. securities firm.
Because “coal is the cheapest, most abundant [...]

The Tangguh gas field in Indonesia’s eastern province of Papua is expected to resume production and delivery by the end of 2008, following the Tuesday’s signing of a 2.5 billion U.S. dollars loan, a senior official said.
Tangguh has proven reserves of 14.4 trillion cubic feet of gas and estimated total reserves of 23.7 trillion cubic [...]

China has raised the capital threshold for projects converting coal to liquid fuel to brake a possible overheating in the coal-chemical industry, as excessive development of the fossil fuel pollutes the environment and strains the water supply.
On July 7, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s industrial watchdog, issued a circular requiring local governments [...]

China produces more coal than anywhere else in the world, fuelling the country’s economic boom. But it comes at a terrible price: the mines are the world’s deadliest, and their environmental impact is catastrophic. Safer - and cleaner - technology exists. But is there the political will to make it happen?
The trucks rattling away [...]