Surigao Joint Venture partners Mindoro Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:MIO; FWB:OLM) and Panoro Minerals Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:PML ; FWB:PZM) report that a Confidentiality Agreement has been signed with SR Metals Inc., on the Agata nickel laterite project, Surigao Gold District, the Philippines.
BHP Billiton has notified the Surigao Joint Venture that it will not be proceeding with [...]

A mixed day yesterday for some locally owned coal miners with Excel Coal Co confirming the rightness of the $1.8 billion offer from Peabody of the US, Centennial and Macarthur Coal both showing the strains of operating in a resources boom.
Centennial said it has cut its 2006 profit estimate 20 per cent or more; from [...]

Spot Australian thermal coal prices eased over the past week as oil receded from record-high levels, but were supported near recent highs by interest in spot cargoes from northern hemisphere buyers suffering a hot summer.
“On a short-term basis we’re seeing a clear correlation between thermal coal and oil given they represent alternatives in terms of [...]

Inco Ltd., a nickel miner seeking to convince shareholders of Falconbridge Ltd. to accept its takeover offer, said second-half earnings will more than double from the first half because metal prices will remain high.
Profit excluding some items will be about $1.42 billion, or $6.17 a share, in the second half, assuming nickel prices of $12.01 [...]

Rising fuel prices that are a bane to consumers have been a boon to Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. and other manufacturers of helicopters that shuttle workers to and from rapidly multiplying offshore drilling rigs.
Between 2002 and 2005, commercial helicopter sales rose from about $100 million to $600 million for the Stratford, Conn.-based subsidiary of United Technologies [...]

Ninety-six people were working in the Shuidong Coal Mine in Hebei province’s Yuxian County at the time of the 5:30 a.m. (1930 GMT Sunday) blast, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said 79 escaped.
The cause of the blast was under investigation but was likely caused by explosives, Xinhua said.
China has world’s most dangerous coal [...]

The Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services Group (I&S) is to equip two winders in the Guotun coal mine in China with power-supply, drive and automation technology. The customer for the order is the Shandong Luneng Group. The project is valued at around four million euros. One winder is to be put into operation in the [...]

Flagship Indian energy firm Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) is in talks over exporting its share of natural gas from Russia’s Sakhalin-1 via Royal Dutch Shell’s nearby LNG terminal, an oil ministry official said on Friday.
The move to make liquefied natural gas (LNG) at Sakhalin-1, a multibillion dollar project on Russia’s Pacific Coast, runs [...]

High and volatile prices will continue to scare physical gold buyers in most parts of the world, but some markets such as China and Japan will remain strong, bullion dealers said.
Analysts say a majority of buyers are still not ready to cope with the wide price fluctuations that lowered global demand in the past quarters, [...]

Like other mining companies, Vancouver-based Quadra Mining Ltd. has seen the value of its shares climb along with metal prices, with its stock gaining 87 per cent since the beginning of 2006.
So the company might have been expected to use its stock to go shopping in a market awash in cash-and-share negotiations.
Instead, Quadra this week [...]