Trading in the stock was halted in a circuit breaker around lunchtime after falling 57.6% to $1.42 from its $3.35 opening price.

Around 78.6 million shares in Patriot Coal had changed hands by 3:30 pm EST on Tuesday compared to the daily average of only 7.9 million. The counter is now worth $209 million, less than a tenth of what it was valued at in July last year.

Earlier this month, Patriot Coal announced new loans totaling 625 million from Citigroup, Barclays and others to improve its financial position ahead of certain of its debt obligations becoming due in March 2013.

Patriot Coal 13 active mining complexes in Appalachia and the Illinois Basin and controls roughly 1.9 billion tons of proven and probable coal reserves.

Doubts were raised about the viability of the project when the Chairman of owners BHP Billiton confirmed earlier comments from BHP's top execs about scaling back its most ambitious programs saying it will not spend the $80 billion previously set aside for expansion by 2015.

While most analysts expect BHP will continue to pour money into iron ore in Australia, the company's other megaprojects – Olympic Dam, expansion of its US shale gas operations and Jansen potash project in Canada – may be put on the back burner.

The government official Paul Heithersay told a conference in Broken Hill, New South Wales that Olympic Dam expansion was "a project with a 100 year mining life, so a glitch this year was unlikely to sway a company that thinks well ahead":

He said the company has already cleared a substantial amount of sand cover, has ordered a significant amount of long lead-time machinery and equipment and has begun planning for the major village expansion – for 10,000 people — and begun building a new airstrip capable of handling 737 aircraft.

The expansion will see a 270 kilometre long electricity transmission line, a 400 km pipeline, a large desalinator plant, a 105 km long railway link from Pimba to Olympic Dam.

The giant copper-gold-uranium-silver project in South Australia's outback is set to become the world's biggest open pit. BHP has already received government approval for the mammoth $30 billion expansion of Olympic Dam and the company's board will make a final decision on the project this year.

The planned open pit mine would be adjacent to the current Olympic Dam underground operation. An idea of the olympian effort required to construct the mine and the size of the undertaking is clear from the fact that trucks will haul overburden 24/7 for five to six years just to reach the ore body.

The combined operations would mine 72 Mt ore per year and would produce 750,000 tonnes refined copper, 19,000 tonnes uranium oxide, 800,000 gold ounces and 2.9 Moz of silver per year.

"We should continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy while giving more priority to maintaining growth," Jiabao said on Sunday according to Reuters.

Spot copper prices were quoted at $3.53 in New York in late trade, up more than 6 cents on the day. On Friday copper fell to a 4-month low of $3.44 a pound in New York trading on mounting worries about the global macro-economic outlook and a slowdown in China.

The Washington Post warned that although the shift in policy "would mean more room for local governments to undertake large-scale investment projects and could mean more central government support," there was "no indication that Beijing would open the credit taps as it did in the wake of the financial crisis."

Today's copper price is still a more than 20% drop from historic highs hit at the end of July last year of a shade under $4.49 a pound.

2011 saw dramatic price collapses for copper. From the record high in July the metal plunged to $3.07 at the beginning of October, a 31% drop in little over two months. In September 2011 alone, the price dropped 26%, losing over $1/pound during the month.

During the US subprime mortgage crisis copper prices declined by more than two-thirds within six months – from $3.96 on June 30 2008 to $1.29 on the last trading day before Christmas of that tumultuous year.

Like many commodities copper's fortunes are driven by the Chinese consumption boom over the last ten years.

Recent price volatility is in sharp contrast to historical trading patterns for copper. During the previous decade from May 1992 to May 2002 copper traded within a 60c band.

Copper's price spikes up and down this year have caught the attention of industry observers with some saying that there are rogue traders operating in the market and that prices are being distorted by dominant players.

Read more about the changing copper market here and here

The $9 billion project approved by the state government in December, was designed to up the port's coal export capacity to 385 million million tonnes – a more than sevenfold increase from the current annual tonnage. The minister responsible said funding issues and environmental regulations were to blame for the decision.

Platts quoted a Rio Tinto official at the time as blaming "changes in the economic environment and the commitments required to progress this option" as reasons for pulling out.

Bloomberg reports thermal-coal buyers in China are  pushing to have shipments  delayed – by as much as two weeks – as stockpiles in the country grows.

While coal for the power-generation industry benchmark for Asia fell to $95.95 a tonne on Monday, the lowest since October 2010, metallurgical coal – a vital ingredient for steelmaking – seems to be holding up better.

Coking coal has been trading steady this year around the $200 a tonne level, down from a temporary spike above $300 a tonne following floods in Australia early 2011.

According to researcher Wood Mackenzie's principal metallurgical-coal analyst quoted by The Australian on Monday prices are "well-supported at current levels" and a slow rise in the near-term is likely.

The announcement follows news last week that BHP Billiton, the world's largest miner, has put the brakes on $80 billion of capital expenditure.

Read more about what some are calling the end of supercycle >>

Traders said support given to Greece to stay in the Eurozone at the weekend's G8 meeting and a stronger dollar hurt the yellow metal.

Reuters reports on Friday US data showed "hedge funds and other money managers liquidated more than $2 billion in US gold futures over a week."

That could come back to haunt them as gold enjoyed a $50 an ounce rally on Thursday and Friday, recovering from an intra-day low Wednesday of $1,528 as investors sold the precious metal to cover losses elsewhere.

That level briefly signaled a bear market with the precious metal 20% below the record of $1,913 hit on August 23 last year.

The sharp turnaround in sentiment in the bullion market has some asking whether the rally is a dead cat bounce or perhaps the best chance to buy before prices rocket.

Gold bulls say a new round of monetary easing in the US – a distinct possibility – and possible similar programs in the crisis-ridden Eurozone will restore the yellow metal's status as an inflation hedge and wealth preserver.

Flooding markets with cheap money would also hurt the dollar, further boosting the metal's price.

Read more about QE in the EU, Grexit and Operation Twist and the effect on the gold price here >>

Perron, who is 89 years old and worth about $1.8 billion, made his money in real estate but also receives millions of dollars from iron mining in Australia's Pilbara region thanks to a deal he struck with Rinehart's father Lang Hancock many years ago.

Hancock discovered the world’s largest iron deposit in the Pilbara in 1952.

Perth Now reports  an airplane trip over the area in late 2010 led Perron to believe he could be entitled to more than he has been receiving:

In 1964, Mr Perron invested 500 pounds into the iron ore venture between Mr Hancock and the late Peter Wright and in return received 15 per cent in royalties from the Tom Price mines.

When Rio Tinto started mining in Brockman, 60km from Tom Price, Mr Perron claims he was told by Mrs Rinehart's right-hand man, Tad Watroba, that it was not covered by the agreement he made with Mr Hancock.

But after his trip he realised the mine was much closer than he thought and he could be entitled to a bigger cut of the iron ore pie.

In a separate legal bid Rinehart is taking Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) to court, demanding the world's third largest miner pay her royalties for iron ore production at the Channar and Eastern Ranges mines on top of Tom Price and two other Pilbara mines she already receives income from.

Perth-based Rinehart's true wealth is hard to guage as the vast majority of it is tied up in a private firm Hancock Prospecting which controls her empire, but the latest estimates put it at $18 billion and counting.

Rinehart's coal and iron ore wealth is also the subject of a bitter family feud. Three of her four children are currently suing her over control of the family trust.

Read more on Rinehart latest legal maneuvre to make sure her kids don't see a dime  >>

Big G, as she is sometimes referred to in the media, ranks number 4 on the MINING.com 2012 list of mining billionaires.

Click here for the full list >>  and here for a Rinehart profile >> 

The import price of 62% iron ore fines at China's Tianjin port was $130.90 at tonne on Monday, down 10.3% since the start of May.

The Financial Times quoted a a senior executive with a global commodities trading house as saying "China is hand-to-mouth at the moment" and traders are attempting to judge whether the situation today is a repeat of  2008:

Commodities traders are trying to ascertain whether the current deferrals mirror the wave of defaults in 2008 when demand collapsed amid the global financial crisis or instead is reminiscent of another wave of defaults later in 2010 after prices fell.

Commodities traders are used to some pushback from Chinese consumers when spot prices fall below contract prices and conditions are weak. Often Chinese consumers default on their contracts, only to rebook them later at lower prices.

Chinese import prices are now the lowest since November 9, 2011 when the steelmaking ingredient was recovering from a mini crash in October. During that month iron ore shed $60 a tonne from all time highs above $180.

At the time China's steelmakers forced the big three iron ore producers – Vale, Rio Tinto and BHP – into contract renegotiation, but this year the price of the commodity has been relatively stable trading between $140 – $150 for most of the year.

Steel production in China actually hit a record high in April with the country's mills forging over 2 million tonnes of steel per day.

Bloomberg reports thermal-coal buyers in China are also pushing to have shipments from Indonesia delayed – by as much as two weeks – as stockpiles in the country grows.

While coal for the power-generation industry benchmark for Asia fell to $95.95 a tonne, the lowest since October 2010, metallurgical coal – the other vital ingredient for steelmaking – seems to be holding up better.

Coking coal has been trading steady this year around the $200 a tonne level, down from a temporary spike above $300 a tonne following floods in Australia early 2011.

According to researcher Wood Mackenzie's principal metallurgical-coal analyst quoted by The Australian on Monday prices are "well-supported at current levels" and a slow rise in the near-term is likely.

Click here for MINING.com's dedicated iron ore pricing page.

It is something of a meaningless exercise because during the first quarter China only exported about 2,770 tonnes of rare-earth oxides – 26.3% of the initial quota according to customs data.

Compared to last year that is a 70% drop in demand. The Australian quotes Du Shuaibing of Baichuan, a Beijing rare earth consultancy: "The global market has adopted a cautious, wait-and-see attitude in rare-earth procurement, resulting in weakness upstream and downstream."

China mines roughly 95% of the world's rare earths and is also the globe's top consumer. It said at the start of the year that it will keep the allocation for the entire year at just over 30,000 tonnes.

The country's export restriction on rare earths is currently before the World Trade Organization after the EU, Japan and the US complained, but what promised to be a precedent-setting case about trade with China now looks more like a damp squib.

This has not stopped lawmakers in the US from viewing rare earths – employed in critical components of the automotive, high tech, green energy and defence industries – as a national security issue and the industry worthy of special treatment.

Some have even called into question an official report from the Pentagon that showed that even at the height of China's clampdown US defence contractors never faced a shortage of rare earths.

The slump in prices of REEs is as dramatic as the decline in volumes. Some more abundant rare earth elements such as lanthanum have crashed by more than 70%. While heavy and scarcer REEs such as dysprosium have generally held up better, many have also experienced price declines of 50% or more.

The changing marketplace has also led to a brutal beating of Molycorp, which was once the world's top supplier of REEs and is now restarting mining and processing.

The Colorado company is destined to become the number one producer of the 17 elements outside China, but the rapidly changing economics of the industry has seen its stock decline 20% this week and 74% since May last year.

Read >> Rare earthquake: May last year Molycorp investors were $5.5 billion richer

Read >> Benign neglect: Black Ops II, Obama and Molycorp

Read >> We need to talk about how rare earth prices are imploding

Graff Diamonds is kicking off a roadshow on Monday and will market the shares at $3.20 to $4.70 to raise $1 billion. It should afford the high end jewelry producer and retailer a market value of $3 billion to $4 billion.

Graff has about 20 stores worldwide, owns the majority of the cutter and polisher South African Diamond Corporation and also has a stake in Gem Diamonds, which operates the Letšeng mine in Lesotho.

Letseng produces some of the world's largest diamonds including the 603-carat Lesotho Promise which Graff made into a necklace of 26 stones that is valued at more than $60 million.

FT.com (sub required) reports Graff is reliant on a small number of buyers – its top client last year bought a single item worth $100 million when total annual revenue was $756 million – and has to carry a massive inventory:

Graff specialises in sourcing some of the biggest and most expensive stones in the world and identifying the people who are willing to buy them. It has an inventory worth almost $900m at cost, of which 50 per cent are individual stones or items of jewellery containing stones of 10 carats or more.

The company only revalues individual pieces at their point of sale and analysts at Credit Suisse have estimated that the inventory could ultimately be worth $2.5bn-$3bn, which would approach the market capitalisation of Graff itself.

Besides jewelry Graff he owns a wine estate and hotel near Cape Town South Africa, a valuable modern and contemporary art collection and the obligatory super-yacht.

CNBC profiled Graff, who grew up in the working class neighbourhood of East London and dropped out of school at age 14 to become a jeweler's apprentice, in June last year:

Graff, now in his eighth decade, is circumspect about the future. His son François, 47, works for him in London. But two years ago, a potentially smooth family transition seemed at risk. Mr. Graff and his wife of 47 years, Anne Marie, were set to divorce after Mr. Graff fathered a child with a woman who had worked for him. The London tabloids screamed that it would be the largest divorce settlement in British history.

At the last minute, the couple reconciled. And Mr. Graff is open in recognizing his daughter.

Graff not only deals in rough stones. The accompanying image (courtesy of Christie’s auction house)  is of the Wittelsbach diamond which was bought by Graff in 2008 for $24.3 million.

The 35.56-ct. Wittelsbach diamond was once owned by King Philip IV of Spain, who purchased it for his daughter, Margarita Teresa (in the background) for her engagement to Leopold I of Austria in 1664. It was mined in India and owned by the same private collector since 1964.

In a controversial move, Graff recut the diamond to remove imperfections, prompting criticism that he had essentially painted over a Rembrandt. The Wittelsbach Graff sold last year for an undisclosed amount.

The Graff family fortune is put at roughly $2.6 billion according to Forbes, which places Laurence Graff outside the top 40 of the 2012 mining billionaires list.

After the IPO he is likely to join two other diamond billionaires in the top ranks.

Number 21, Nicky Oppenheimer of De Beers is in charge of a family fortune estimated at $6.8 billion while Beny Steinmetz's diamond businesses supply him with a net worth of $5.9 billion.   Controversial Angola-focused diamond miner Lev Leviev sits at #61 on the list .

Click here for profiles of the world of mining's 40 richest people >>

On Friday customs data from China – producer of 95% of the world rare earths – showed a 70% year-on-year drop in export demand as the country's contentious export quotas are only filled 26%.

China is also the world's number one consumer of rare earths – used extensviely in green technology and the medical and defence industries – and lower domestic consumption have also contributed to a severe price slump.

Last week Molycorp – destined to become the number one producer of the 17 elements outside China – announced it is already halfway in reaching its ultimate production target of 40,000 tonnes per annum and at the same time increased reserves at its Mountain Pass mine 36%.

However, investors are selling off the stock because the average prices Molycorp received for rare earth oxides fell 20% to $95 a kilogram from $120 a kilogram in the final quarter of last year.

Molycorp shares hit a 2012 high of $34.71 on enthusiasm over a ground-breaking deal with Canada's Neo Material Technologies announced in March that gave it access to advanced rare earth processing capabilities and a sales channel into China.

But that euphoria has now evaporated as REE prices and demand in China collapse and consumers in the automotive, high tech and green energy industries scramble to find alternatives.

Tuesday's decline brings Molycorp's losses since hitting a high of $77.54 on May 3 2011 to 74% and a market value of $1.9 billion.

Read more about why China's export quotas and the WTO spat have become a joke >>

Read more about how rare earths have created a political fault line in the US >>

Read more about the implosion in rare earth oxide prices >>

Ahead of announcing annual financials results that showed record production of 5.6 million ounces and cash flows of $123 million the Vancouver-based company shot up 7% to close at $5.51.

Despite today's gains, paying handsome dividends and a share buy-back program Silvercorp is still trading not far off three-year and is down a whopping 66% from a record stock price just shy of $16 hit in April last year.

Wild swings in silver stocks are common but Silvercorp, the number one silver miner in China, has had an especially torrid year after a short and distort saga that began in September 2011.

It closed at $8.23 September 1, the day before the announcement of an anonymous letter alleging $1 billion fraud at the company over silver production and the revelation of a short position of 23 million shares or 13% of the outstanding stock.

One of the most dramatic days was Wednesday September 14 when more than 10 million shares were traded against an average of less than 1 million before the whole debacle: the share bounced between a low of $5.81 and a high of $7.42. This was a day after it lost 21% of its value. A month later it gained 19% in a single session when a forensic audit by KPMG exonerated the company.

Silvercorp is currently suing the alleged scammers which include Chinastockwatch.com and Alfredlittle.com in New York and has retained independent consultants to confirm resource estimates at four of its properties. The company said today that pursuing the legal action and the audits have already cost it $3.9 million.

The company is now worth $940 million on the Toronto bourse. It operates four silver-lead-zinc mines in Henan province and is also advancing a silver project in northern British Columbia, Canada.

Click here for Silvercorp's detailed set of results for the year ended March 31, 2012.

Click here for previous MINING.com coverage of the short-seller attack on Silvercorp >>

According to the Mining Industry Human Resources Council, a body set up to help mineworkers transition out of the resource industry during the sector's slump in the Nineties may need to hire 112,000 new employees by 2021.

That's a 50% increase from current employment levels and the massive number of new workers is needed because the mining industry has a $140 billion pipeline of new projects across the country.

Despite paying the highest wages – average $40.42/hour vs a $25/hour across sectors – the mining industry faces an uphill struggle filling all the positions:

Hindering recruitment are some ongoing misconceptions and outdated perceptions about mining, Mr. Montpellier said. The image of mining as a dangerous, high-risk industry with men doing back-breaking labour deep underground and exploiting the resources of poor, underdeveloped countries is one that the industry must address.

Mining has become one of the safest industries, he said. It is a technology-intense field in which computer-controlled equipment often does most of the hardest work, while knowledgeable, highly trained technologists operate computers and other sophisticated equipment.

Continue reading at The Globe & Mail

Gold was recovering from an intra-day low yesterday when the yellow metal dipped to $1,528, briefly signalling a bear market with gold 20% below the record of $1,913 hit on August 23 last year.

Traders said the rally was a result of investors who had been waiting on the sidelines for a lower price to get back into the market. Others thought it was mainly due to technical buying as gold was approaching its 100-day moving average and may just be a 'dead-cat bounce' or temporary rally.

Bloomberg quotes a trader at a US hedge fund as saying "the pace and extent of the rise smell very much like short-covering to me."

The Financial Times (sub required) found another skeptic Edel Tully, a precious metals strategist at UBS, who said that the yellow metal has not found a floor yet:

While many investors were considering options about buying into the gold market and current prices were “tempting”, many more preferred “to wait before they pull that trigger. A move below $1,500 seems necessary to attract interest”, she added.

Nevertheless, Thursday's rally in gold came despite a strengthening US dollar which has enjoyed a 14-day winning streak. Usually gold moves in the opposite direction as the dollar.

The drumbeat of a renewed program of some type of monetary policy easing by the US Federal Reserve was getting louder on Thursday and some analysts now predict a European equivalent of quantitative easing as a Greek exit from the euro become likelier.

That there is already a term for this scenario among traders – 'Grexit' – is an indication of just how much it is being talked about.

The IMF itself suggested yesterday that the European Central Bank “may need to pursue unconventional measures.”

Unexpected bad economic news from the US – the Philadelphia Fed survey fell from positive to negative – also strengthened the case for US easing.

The last time this happened was August last year, a month before Operation Twist was announced which pumped $400 billion into markets. Twist is set to expire in June and followed QE1 and QE2 when the Fed bought $2.3 trillion of bonds.

If the EU joins the US in flooding the market with cheap money it will be a massive boon for gold. Gold should recapture its allure as a storer of wealth and an inflation hedge. And it would hurt the dollar, boosting the metal's price.

It is worth remembering that before the Fed kicked off QE1 on 16 December 2008 an ounce of gold was changing hands for $837.

Reuters on Thursday spoke to the author of a new book who shares this bullish outlook saying "a return to the gold standard is inevitable, perhaps as early as next year.

"And gold prices could hit $10,000 an ounce," as the Bric countries – led by Russia – seek an alternative to the dollar, the IMF and the World Bank.

Some countries will enjoy 35% growth rates thanks to resource investment – iron ore in the case of Sierra Leone for example.

A 2010 McKinsey study forecast that Africa’s combined economy would grow by $1 trillion by 2020 not only thanks to mining projects and booming tourism, but a growing middle class, political stability and strengthened institutions.

Africa's economic numbers all point upwards, but how is executive pay for expatriates stacking up?

FT.com reports on on the changing nature of executive pay and living conditions in Africa.

The paper says regional variations in pay packages are extensive. In West Africa an expat exec could "also get a driver and car, and often security, as well as housing with staff to run it," while in east and southern Africa excellent healthcare and education opportunities make up for lower compensation.

There are also many new rules covering expat workers – 90% of workers in Mozambique must be local and other countries require a local 2IC for instance.

And one traditional component of expat pay in Africa is beginning to drop out of packages altogether – danger pay.

Examples of executive pay:

● Chief operating officer for a large underground and open pit mining operation in Central Africa
Base compensation: $450,000
Variable additional pay: $340,000
Additional benefits: Free furnished family accommodation; use of company vehicle on site; two business-class fares to home base (plus spouse) every six months; medical cover plus evacuation in event of illness or injury.
(Source: Heidrick & Struggles, Johannesburg)

● General manager for a mining company in East Africa
Base compensation: $230,000
Allowances: geographic: $60,000; residential: $28,000
Variable compensation: short-term incentives: $75,000; long-term incentive: $75,000
Additional benefits: Business-class flights for employee and dependents to home base twice a year; free medical plus emergency evacuation for illness or injury.
(Source: Heidrick & Struggles, Johannesburg)

Continue reading at FT.com (sub required).

Africa contains 54 countries and a total population of 1 billion and its biggest problem remains "to overcome deeply entrenched perceptions" a recent study of investment on the continent argued.

One such misconception is a fairly banal one: Africa is in reality much bigger than it appears on maps – the land mass can accommodate the US, China, India, Japan and Europe.

Click on the map below for a detailed geographical infographic and read more on why 66% of institutional investors choose Africa as number one destination here >>.

The decline is primarily as a result of utilities switching to cheap natural gas which is trading at multi-year lows.

In absolute terms the EIA expects electricity generation from coal to decline roughly 15% this year as generation from natural gas increases by about 24%.

But the power sector is very price sensitive – next year the independent research body forecasts electricity generation from coal will increase by about 4%, "as projected coal prices fall slightly while natural gas prices increase, allowing coal to regain some of its power generation share."

While stricter environmental regulation is leading to plant closures the US has not stopped building coal-fired power plants.

Illinois' Prairie State power station will go into production in December and the plant will supply electricity to 2.5 million households for at least the next 30 years.

What makes the $5 billion Prairie State plant economically feasible compared to natural gas is that it sits on top of a coal mine owned and operated by US energy giant Peabody.

Read more about Old king coal's new crown jewel >>