Global miner BHP Billiton Ltd is looking to build a new rail line between some of its inland Australian coal mines and the coast in a move that could threaten dominant coal haulage firm QR National Ltd, a newspaper said.

Earthquake and disruptions related to the Pike River mining disaster slashed Solid Energy's profit by about $35 million. Also, its renewable energy businesses are not profitable and made a loss of $17m in the year to June 30. However, the state-owned coal miner's chairman, John Palmer, said the company produced a strong performance, with a 29 per cent increase in profit to $87.2m for the year to June 2011 from a 20 per cent lift in sales to $829m.

Sesa Goa, a Vedanta Group company, has stopped iron ore mining at Chitradurga in Karnataka. The Supreme Court on Friday had banned mining activities at Chitradurga and Tumkur districts. A similar ban on mining is already in force at Bellary in the State.

Four miners have been killed in an explosion that caved in part of a coal mine in the northern Mexico border state of Coahuila.

China's coal mine safety watchdog said on Friday it had completed a manned experiment of a permanent underground chamber that can shelter miners in case of an accident as part of its efforts to reduce mining casualties.

Workers at Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold's (FCX.N: Quote) Grasberg mine in Indonesia plan to stage a strike in coming days after talks with the company failed to resolve a pay dispute, a move that could tighten global copper supplies and lift prices. A strike would be the second in two months at Grasberg, the world's third biggest copper mine that also has the biggest gold reserves, after an eight-day stoppage in July caused production losses and helped push copper prices to three-month highs

Discovery Air Innovations (DAI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Discovery Air Inc. and Hybrid Air Vehicles Limited (HAV) have signed an agreement under which DAI will be the first customer for HAV’s Commercial Heavy Lift program.

Shaanxi Coal Industry plans an initial public offering in Shanghai to raise up to 17.3 billion yuan ($2.7 billion) in what could be China's biggest IPO this year. The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said late on Thursday that it would review Shaanxi Coal's IPO application on August 29.

Gold prices were staging a rally Friday, shrugging off an almost three-day selloff, after Ben Bernanke left the door open for more monetary easing.