The Society of Petroleum Engineers will organise a first-class, international enhanced oil recovery (EOR) conference to take place alongside the 6th Oil and Gas West Asia Exhibition, which was started in 1998.

The conference commences on April 21 and concludes on April 23. It will be held at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Muscat, within walking distance of the Oman Expo, where the Oil and Gas West Asia Exhibition will be held.
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Brilliant Mining Corp. today announced the commencement of commercial production from the recently discovered high-grade Deacon orebody at the Lanfranchi Nickel Mine, Kambalda District, Western Australia.

Key Point Summary (100% basis)(i)

- Commencement of production at Deacon with a Probable Reserve of 1.7 Mt grading 2.54% Ni for 43,000 tonnes (95 million lbs)(i) contained Ni metal

- Deacon Orebody - 18 months from discovery to production
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Zambia’s main opposition party, The Patriotic Front, has urged the government to scrap its proposed new tax regime for the mining sector because its likely to hurt growth in the recovering sector, local media quoted PF President Michael Sata as saying over the weekend.

Sata, was quoted by the independent Post newspaper as saying that the decision of government to implement the tax regime effective April 1 is likely to put jobs at risk and threaten future expansion plans by mining companies.
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Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche has been dead since 1900, but he could still be in for a move. A strip-mining company is taking samples of coal near his hometown of Roecken, where he’s also buried.

As reported in the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Mibrag, a mining company, has been carrying out exploratory drilling near the village in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt since 2006.

If the samples prove positive, the surrounding towns might have to be demolished to make room for strip-mining.
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Thermal coal prices at Australia’s Newcastle port, a benchmark for Asia, dropped for a sixth week as disruptions to exports eased in Queensland and China and amid weaker demand from Northern Hemisphere buyers after winter.

The weekly index for power-station coal prices at the New South Wales port dropped $4.86, or 3.9 percent, to $119.50 a metric ton in the week ended March 28, according to the globalCOAL NEWC Index.
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Australian mining companies Perilya Ltd. and CBH Resources Ltd. will merge in an all-stock deal that will put the combined group among the world’s top 10 zinc and lead producers, the companies said in a statement Wednesday.

Both companies operate lead and zinc mines in Australia’s Broken Hill mining district, as well as other national projects.

Analysts told Dow Jones Newswires that the merger will create more operational efficiency, producing some 220,000 metric tons of zinc and nearly 72,000 tons of lead with a combined market capitalization of 491 million Australian dollars ($450 million).
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A mining company has announced plans to restore portions of a foothills area carved out by its operations, but the proposal must still be approved by Azusa city leaders.

Introduced last year, the proposal offers to restore the scar in the east side of the mountains - known to residents as the “Mayan steps” - to its natural appearance.

Vulcan Materials Co. would use a technique known as micro-benching to restore the area, a process that would take five to seven years.
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Supporters of two controversial coal power plants proposed for Western Kansas say they hope to pass new legislation this week that could override an expected veto by the governor and allow the $3.6 billion project to move ahead.

The bill would need to pick up seven additional votes to make it veto-proof but a spokesperson for House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, said she was optimistic that the new version would be adopted, probably by Thursday.
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Xstrata Plc XTA.L, the world’s biggest thermal coal exporter, said on Thursday it lifted force majeure on coal shipments from its Rolleston mine in Australia, which produces 8 million tonnes of thermal coal annually.

“We’ve sent out a note to clients today informing them that the force majeure has been lifted and shipments will resume shortly,” said James Rickards, a spokesman from Xstrata’s coal unit in Australia.

The resumption of exports from Rolleston could drive prices below $120 a tonne, traders say.
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Today in Asia Trade, oil price up to $106.35 dollars a barrel, delivery rose 45 cents.

Oil prices were higher in Asian trade on Thursday, bolstered by a weaker-than-expected energy stockpiles report in the United States, the world’s biggest energy user.

The US government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) said its crude stockpiles were unchanged at 311.8 million barrels in the week ending March 21.
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