The order would be the largest in history for Vale's giant ships, known as Valemaxes, which can carry up to 400,000 deadweight tons.

But the miner revised down its 2015 U.S. iron ore sales and production volume estimate to 20.5 million tons, from its previous guidance for 22 million tons

Using advanced photonics, Dr Agneszka Zuber and Associate Professor Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem's method can find gold nanoparticules at detection limits a hundred times lower than current methods such as X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF).

Torrential rain in Chile's desert region and environmental protests dented first-quarter output, forcing the miner cut its annual production forecast.

"You don’t need to be all that warm when you’re born and raised in Linton, Ind., and working in a coal mine. They weren’t hiring coal miners on the basis of their personalities."

Operations continue to perform within guidance.

Caterpillar (Langfang) Mining Equipment Co. recently manufactured its first full armored face conveyor (AFC) system for longwall mining.

Warner Linear has supplied its S-Track linear actuators to a well-respected manufacturer of off-highway vehicles for use on a line of wheeled loaders. The actuators are used to facilitate fast and reliable bucket replacement on-site to minimise vehicle downtime. The Warner actuators were chosen for their robust design and operational flexibility, which made them the ideal solution for use within the demanding environments of the construction industry.

Grappling with uncertainties in decision-making is at the heart of managing mines’ operations, and students at the Wits School of Mining Engineering are employing a high-tech program to do just this.