Pike River Coal (PRC) expects to crank up to 150 staff by June next year when it plans to be in full production.

The West Coast underground coal mine in the Paparoa range, 46km north of Greymouth, posted a loss of $1.14 million yesterday for the year to June 2008.

That reflects the mine still being in its development stage.

Chief executive Gordon Ward said the company raised $182 million in the past year to fund the development and had invested $100m in the past year.
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The iron ore reserves in Brazil are estimated to be in the region of 300-500 mt, he added. Mr Mittal was speaking after the company’s 23rd AGM here on Thursday.

In India, Ispat has been allotted iron ore mines in Jharkhand and coal mines in Madhya Pradesh.

Ispat Industries has taken steps to start iron ore mining in Brazil. It has floated a separate company, Erebus, to spearhead the Brazil venture. Ispat Industries and group company, Global Steel Holdings, have picked up 40% and 30% stakes, respectively, in Erebus. The remaining 30% will be held by a local Brazilian firm.
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Sherritt International is delaying its plan to build a $3.3 billion coal gasification project near Edmonton due to uncertainty over carbon dioxide regulations and the products the plant could make.

Sherritt’s original plan was to file its environmental impact assessment on the proposal this year and start construction next year, with production to begin in 2012.

A Sherritt official told The Canadian Press the new timeline would see the environmental report submitted next year with construction starting in 2010 and production to begin in 2014.
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Tampakan is region Philipines government plans copper-gold mine exploration project. But in this region there is a policy prohibiting exploration process of mine endangering area around location of mine.

“We have a law to enforce the law, it can’t be superseded by a local ordinance,” said Environment Secretary Jose Atienza, referring to a pending resolution by the provincial government of South Cotabato, where Tampakan is located, which calls for a ban on open-pit mining.
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India`s National Aluminium Co Ltd has begun receiving imported coal to overcome the shortages which forced it to cut alumina output in July but stocks remain thin, an official said.

AK Sharma, executive director at Nalco, said that a shipment of 30,000t of coal had already arrived while another of the same size would soon be delivered.

He said a third cargo of 100,000t was expected within a week to ten days: “We had planned total imports of 330,000 tonnes. The balance 170,000 tonnes is still under process.”
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The biggest iron ore producer company of Australian, Fortescue Metal Group Ltd., will expansion of mining exploration. To support expansion plan of mining exploration, the company plans to sell extraordinary share.

Fortescue wants to almost triple output to feed rising demand from steel mills in China and benefit from record prices. The first expansion stage to 120 million metric tons a year may cost $3.9 billion, said Patersons Securities Ltd.’s Alex Passmore.
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It has been another bumper year for Anglo-Australian mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto as the arm-wrestle over a hostile takeover bid intensifies.

Both companies are using exceptional profits, fuelled by China’s insatiable demand for Australian resources, to press their respective claims in this long-running merger saga.

Rio Tinto has used its strong half-year results to bolster its defence against a multi-billion dollar offer from its powerful competitor.
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Sidon has also recently applied for roughly 225,000 acres of potash permits in the Vermilion area on the Saskatchewan-Alberta border. The area is close to Unity Saskatchewan, the site of Canada’s first potash mine. Sidon expects final approval on these applications in the near future.

Sidon International Resources announced this morning that it is in receipt of a “comfort letter” from the government of Saskatchewan with respect to coal permit applications submitted in June. The letter states that Sidon has priority on 100% of the applications it has submitted, which encompass 18,432 hectares in the area of the Goldsource Mines discovery.
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Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko claimed this speaking at a solemn meeting devoted to opening a groove of the mine named after Izvestiya newspaper of Donbassantratsyt state-owned company in the Luhansk Oblast.

The Prime Minister stressed that over 8 months of the current year, the coal mining in Ukraine has increased by 2.5 million tons compared with the previous showings.

She also claimed that the government has undertaken several serious steps this year to support the coal-mining branch. In particular, the branch financing soared by 25% this year.

It’s like coal-mining,” BHP Billiton CEO Marius Kloppers says of potash-mining.

Demand for potash has surged, driving prices into orbit, after the market spent the last three decades in surplus, with the last new mine being built more than 20 years ago.

Kloppers says that, just like coal-mining, a continuous miner is installed and basic board-and-pillar mining undertaken.

“You convey it out, you dissolve it, you recrystallise it, and that’s the product,” says Kloppers of potash-mining, into which the BHP Billiton that he leads might be investing “billions and billions of dollars” in the future. Read more » »