RIO Tinto subsidiary Coal & Allied Industries plans to slash production amid ongoing shipping backlogs at Australian ports, a move analysts warn could spread across the sector.
Coal & Allied will cut its production this year by about 20 per cent, and reduce its workforce by about 250 contractor jobs across three sites at its Hunter [...]

BRAZIL’S Companhia Vale do Rio Doce has signalled its confidence in the nickel market by granting final board approval for the $US3.2 billion Goro laterite project in New Caledonia, despite years of delays, cost blowouts and disputes with locals.
Goro has been one of the most-watched nickel developments in the world amid speculation CVRD could cancel [...]

Xstrata Plc, the world’s biggest exporter of power-station coal, agreed to buy Gloucester Coal Ltd. for A$391 million ($319 million) to extend the life of mining operations in Australia’s New South Wales state.
The cash offer of A$4.75 a share, which is 25 percent higher than Gloucester’s latest close, is unanimously recommended by Gloucester’s board, the [...]

Queensland Gas Co. shareholders approved AGL Energy Ltd.’s purchase of a stake in the Australian coal seam gas producer for A$324 million ($254 million), spurning a rival bid from a Societe Generale Asset Management unit.
AGL’s proposal, which includes a 20-year contract to buy fuel from the Brisbane-based company, was backed by more than 75 [...]

Shares of nickel miners in Australia, the world’s second-largest producer of the metal, may keep rising even as the stocks sell by one measure for twice as much as those of integrated mining companies.
China’s demand for cutlery, microwaves and skyscrapers is straining supplies of the metal used to make stainless steel, sending prices on the [...]

Shares of nickel miners in Australia, the world’s second- largest producer of the metal, may keep rising even as the stocks sell by one measure for twice as much as those of integrated mining companies.
The Chinese demand for cutlery, microwaves and skyscrapers is straining supplies of the metal used to make stainless steel, sending prices [...]

Upstart explorer Australian Mining Investments Ltd. more than halved its resource estimate for a copper discovery in Queensland state on Monday, slicing 50 percent off the value of its shares.
The company, which this week changes its name to CuDeco Ltd., had seen its stock rocket to a high of A$10, from 29 cents, in less [...]