MINING.COM Staff Writer

Reuters reports: Rep. Henry Waxman's attempts to find out if a proposed controversial Canada-to-U.S. Gulf Coast oil sands pipeline will benefit Koch Industries appears to have hit a dead end. Representatives for billionaire brothers and oil magnates Charles and David Koch — major donors to GOP elections and influential conservative organizations — are evidently stonewalling the California Democrat about their possible financial interest in seeing the permit approved for TransCanada's proposed $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline.

The boom in resource industry wealth flowing from iron ore and coal exports to China and India has created a record number of billionaires in Australia, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. The latest to top the billionaires club Down Under is iron ore queen Gina Reinhart, who has become the richest person ever in Australia, worth an estimated $10.3 billion. Reinhart is the first woman to to top BRW's Rich 200 list. The list shows Australia now has 35 billionaires, five more than last year, and a cut-off point of $215 million, which is $30 million higher than last year's cut-off of $185 million.

Joo-Cheong Tham of the Drum Opinion at ABC discusses the introduction of Enterprise Migration Agreements (EMAs) to assist with skills shortages in many industries, including mining.