Rio Tinto sells its Blair Athol coal mine for less than a bus ticket

A buildup of volatile gas hampered rescue efforts in one Chinese coal mine and water continued to pour into another as emergency crews raced to reach 42 people trapped yesterday for a second day, officials and state media reports said. The accidents — a cave-in at one mine and a flood at the other — occurred on Saturday in two southern provinces after days of heavy rains.

Warning that 80 per cent of the country's power plants face the risk of a default due to coal shortages and environmental issues, a body of power producers has petitioned the government for an expert group to review contracts awarded under through the competitive bidding route.

The Greens' push to shut down the coal industry could severely undermine the nation's economy and sacrifice 200,000 jobs, new economic modelling warns. As the party takes to Federal Parliament today with unprecedented numbers and wielding the balance of power in the Senate, fresh research finds that leader Bob Brown's policy to phase out coal mining would slash GDP by up to $36 billion a year.

Rescuers were racing against time on Saturday to reach 40 miners buried underground in two separate coal mine disasters which have already killed three people in south China. Work crew operated at least 17 pumps at Niupeng Mine in rural Guizhou Province to release water from the flooded mine before rescuers could be sent down the pit.

Canadian base metal and coal miners were the nation's economic bright spot in April, according to report from Statistics Canada released on Thursday. The study, which looked at gross domestic product by industry, found that mining grew strongly while the rest of the economy was mostly flat.

Mexican mining production rose 22% in April from the year-ago month, led by a big jump in output of copper, the National Statistics Institute, or Inegi, said Thursday. Copper production rose 77% to 32,324 metric tons.

Singapore's Nava Bharat Pte plans to start construction of a 300 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Zambia by the end of 2011 and complete it by 2014, company director Ashwin Devineni said on Saturday. "We have finalised the detailed layout of the power plant initially for 300 MW and later for an additional 300 MW," Devineni said in a statement.

Indian Express reports the Environment Ministry today gave its clearance for mining in six coal blocks in Orissa that are planned to feed coal to three crucial power plants, including one ultra-mega power project (UMPP). Five of these six coal blocks fell in ‘No-Go’ areas — a reference to those forest areas which are out of bounds for coal mining —because of which environmental clearance was being held up. The permission came after all the three power projects agreed to substantially reduce the forest area that will be damaged by coal mining.

Teck Resources Limited (TSX: TCK.A and TCK.B, NYSE: TCK) ("Teck") announced today that it has priced its previously announced offering of senior unsecured notes. Teck will issue US$2.0 billion in aggregate principal amount of notes, consisting of US$300 million aggregate principal amount of 3.15% notes due 2017, US$700 million aggregate principal amount of 4.75% notes due 2022 and US$1.0 billion aggregate principal amount of 6.25% notes due 2041.