The Australian dollar rose, ending a two-day slide, on speculation the nation’s export earnings will be bolstered by rising prices of metals such as gold and nickel.
The currency climbed to its highest this week after the price of gold, of which Australia is the world’s second-largest producer, gained on claims by North Korea it has [...]

The Russian aluminum company Rusal on Monday announced a three-way merger to create the world’s biggest aluminum producer, dethroning the U.S. aluminum maker Alcoa and underscoring the rise of Russia’s commodity-based industries against a backdrop of rising prices.
Under the terms of the agreement, Rusal, which is controlled by the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, will issue [...]

Oil prices rebounded above 60 dollars in Asian trade Monday on concerns North Korea’s nuclear test will embolden Iran to pursue its own nuclear programme, dealers said.
A report that the president of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has called on fellow cartel members to cut production also helped push prices higher, they said.
At [...]

Mexico’s President-elect Felipe Calderon met Friday with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and top officials to discuss boosting bilateral auto trade and Mexico’s entry into a South American trade bloc.
Calderon also met with Brazilian Trade Minister Luiz Furlan and Foreign Minister Celso Amorim. In addition to trade, the two countries discussed Mexico’s possible [...]

Japanese trading house Mitsui and Co. says it plans to jointly develop one of the world’s largest uranium mines in Russia to supply Japanese nuclear power plants.
Mitsui and the Russian state-owned nuclear fuel firm Techsnabexport (Tenex) will together spend nearly 29 billion yen (245 million dollars) to develop the mine, with the aim of beginning [...]

Brazil’s 2007-08 ethanol exports could slip to 2.5 billion liters, down about 20% from an estimated 3.1 billion liters this season, as the U.S. begins to sell ethanol abroad next year due to excess stocks, the president of sugar consultancy Datagro said Friday.
This year, the U.S. has been Brazil’s principal buyer of ethanol, in large [...]

BACK in 1999, when she was the head of refining at Chevron, Patricia A. Woertz told a group of energy officials that it was time to stop mixing agricultural policy with fuels policy.
In that same speech, at a fuels conference in Washington, Ms. Woertz also publicly expressed worry about the unintended consequences of a federal [...]

Magnus International Resources, Inc. announced today that it has entered into a letter of intent to acquire African Mineral Fields, a company which holds an exclusive option to acquire 100% interests in four gold projects in Uganda. The acquisition comes as part of Magnus’ decision to expand its mineral portfolio into Africa, which holds 55% [...]