A blast in a coal mine in China killed 10 people, officials said Monday. The blast, due to accumulation of gas inside the mine, took place Sunday night in southwest Guizhou province, Xinhua reported.

Copper was steady on Monday, supported by glimmers of economic resilience in Japan, a drawdown in inventories of the metal, and a softer dollar, but investors were wary after wild market swings last week.

Labrador Iron Mines Holdings Limited (TSX: LIM) is pleased to report that it has entered into an agreement with the Iron Ore Company of Canada (“IOC”) for the sale and shipping of all of LIM’s 2011 iron ore production. Iron ore from LIM’s new James Mine in northwest Western Labrador is currently transported by rail from its Silver Yards rail head, near Schefferville, via the TSH railway and the Quebec North Shore and Labrador (QNS&L) railway, to the Port of Sept-Iles where the ore is unloaded and stockpiled adjacent to LIM’s Point-aux-Basques dock facilities leased from the Port of Sept-Iles.

Avocet Mining received the latest results from its drilling programme at its flagship Inata gold mine in Burkina Faso. The drilling programme was conducted over the first half of 2011 within the Company’s existing mine license area.

Harmony Gold Mining Company released its financial results on Monday for the quarter and the year ended 30 June 2011. The company said headline earnings improved to R957 million, in comparison to R4 million in the previous year. Harmony recorded a net profit of R617 million (R192m in FY 2010) for financial year 2011.

Mega Uranium today announces its unaudited results for the three and nine months ended June 30, 2011. As at June 30, 2011, Mega had cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaling $31.1 million, as compared to $49.9 million at the end of September 30, 2010, a decrease of 38%. The decrease is primarily attributable to the Lake Maitland feasibility costs and other exploration expenditures incurred during the current period. As at June 30, 2011, the Company had mineral properties and related expenditures of $265.9 million, as compared to $251.7 million as at September 30, 2010. The increase reflects expenditures on our mineral properties of $18.9 million, offset by write offs of mineral properties of $4.6 million.

Al Jazeera profiles the dangerous mining work in the Mingora emerald mines in Pakistan. "We work in the jaws of death, but we are poor and don't have a choice. Thank god the owners have been kind enough to give me a job," says one worker in the video. About 150 labourers are employed in at least 16 such mines.

Even without a television crew filming every move they make underground, the coal miners who work at Cobalt Coal's Westchester Mine in Big Sandy are running coal and getting better at it according to Mike Crowder, Cobalt's chief executive officer.

Despite the high unemployment rate in the United States, Catepillar's CEO says there is a desparate shortage of skilled workers, and many job vacancies are going unfilled in some of the most depressed regions of the country. "I talked to one of our great customers in Detroit. I spent some time with our distributors. They have 50 job openings today that they cannot fill, and guess what they are. They are service technician jobs," says Doug Oberhelman, chairman and CEO of Caterpillar. He was interviewed by CNBC on Friday.