A landmark victory in the Federal Court looks set to give unions more power to bargain on behalf of workers at Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton iron ore operations in the Pilbara. The full bench of the court has ruled that a non-union collective agreement covering workers in Rio Tinto's operations was invalid. Yesterday's decision casts doubt on similar agreements at BHP and other operations in the mining region, involving thousands of workers.

The bubble that is keeping iron ore prices at historic highs may be about to burst, and when it does, iron ore giant Fortescue Minerals will still be making money, the company's new CEO predicts.

Australia's Whitehaven Coal reported a 48 percent rise in equity coal output in the June quarter versus the same period a year ago and said it expects to show a fiscal 2011 underlying net profit of A$70 million before significant items.

BHP Billiton has received approval from the US competition regulator for its $US15.1 billion ($A14 billion) takeover of shale gas company Petrohawk Energy.

Macarthur Coal, the mining group that is the target of a $4.7 billion takeover bid by US energy company Peabody Energy and steel giant ArcelorMittal, has suffered a steep slide in sales a result of wet weather. Macarthur's sales in the June quarter tumbled 22.5%, with its annual sales down 26.5% to 3.9 million tonnes. Peabody and Arcelor have sweetened the deal following a couple of failed attempts in the past three years and is set to complete due diligence at the end of the week.

With continuing improvement in demand around the world, Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) report second-quarter 2011 profit per share of $1.72 excluding $204 million of expense related to the acquisition of Bucyrus, a 58-percent improvement from $1.09 in the second quarter of 2010.

CDE have announced the addition of Pilot Crushtec to their global distributor network with responsibility for South Africaand sub-SaharanAfrica. Pilot Crushtec will promote the full range of CDE washing equipment including the Evowash sand washing plant, Prograde screens, M2500 mobile washing plant, Rotomax logwashers and Aquacycle thickeners.

Ditem Explorations (TSX VENTURE:DIT) is pleased to announce that the summer exploration program on the Lalande property is now underway.

PGM prices have been given a lift by the latest EU debt agreement but, while Europe remains a focus over the medium term, for now problems in major supplier, South Africa, are likely to come into focus.