The deposit, in the Republic of Buryatia in Russia, makes up one section of the larger Okino-Klyuchevsky coal field, which has 200 million tonnes of reserves and is about 120 km (75 miles) - MOSCOW, April 16 - Russian electricity producer OGK-3 has won a tender to develop a coal field with reserves of 33.8 [...]

Oil giants Chevron Corp. and Total have confirmed that they are in discussions with the Iraqi Oil Ministry to increase production in an important oil field in southern Iraq.
The discussions are aimed at finalizing a two-year deal, or technical support agreement, to boost production at the West Qurna Stage 1 oil field near Iraq’s second-largest [...]

OJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel announced that Norilsk Nickel’s proposed acquisition of control of LionOre Mining International Ltd. (Nachrichten) (”LionOre”) (Toronto Stock Exchange symbol: “LIM”; London Stock Exchange symbol: “LOR”; Botswana Stock Exchange symbol: “LIONORE”), which was notified in Norway on May 21, 2007, has been approved under the Norwegian Competition Act of 5 March 2004 [...]

A devastating gas explosion tore through a Siberian coal mine Monday, killing at least 78 miners, Russian officials said, as emergency workers raced to rescue dozens still trapped underground.
“The latest figures we have is 78 killed,” the Kemerovo regional administration’s spokesman Sergei Cheremnov said as quoted by the Interfax news agency.
Earlier, emergency ministry officials said [...]

Mikhail Prokhorov returned to his office at Norilsk Nickel headquarters on Monday, his spokesman proclaiming that his four-day detention by the French police on suspicion of pimping was a “regrettable misunderstanding”.
While that may very well be the case for the French, what Russian rivals of Prokhorov will now understand about the scandal could be regrettable [...]

A cargo train with coal and minerals derailed in central Russia late on Thursday, but nobody was injured and there was no ecological hazard.
Nineteen train cars with coal and minerals derailed at 20:00 Moscow time in Kirov region, a spokesman of the Russian Railways Company told Tass.
“Nobody was injured in the incident and there is [...]

Russia’s foreign minister denounced on Friday the detention of a Russian man accused of trying to sell highly enriched uranium to Georgian agents, calling it a “provocation.”
A government scientist, meanwhile, confirmed that a sample of the uranium sent to Russia was weapons-grade, but said the sample was too small to determine its origin, news agencies [...]

Russian state-controlled oil major Rosneft, the country’s number two oil producer, is planning a second listing, a newspaper has reported.
The Kremlin “has taken a decision in principle to carry out a second IPO (Initial Public Offering)”, business daily RBK quoted an unnamed official from Russia’s federal property agency Rosimushchestvo as saying Wednesday.
Nikolai Manvelov, a Rosneft [...]

Guinea’s general strike has halted all shipments of bauxite from the world’s biggest bauxite exporter, Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee (CBG), its operator Alcoa Inc. said on Monday.
Company officials in the West African country, the top bauxite exporter, had previously said ship loading operations could continue for around a week using security stocks, but Alcoa [...]

Open war was declared in Moscow this week, as one official at the Ministry of Natural Resources came out publicly in favour of Peter Hambro Mining (PHM), and other officials, including the official spokesman for his superior, repudiated the statement, and warned that no decision on PHM’s licensing troubles is due in Moscow until mid-January [...]