mineral exploration project – commodity prices – mining stock- trade and market

China’s gold producers will extend this quarter’s rally as demand for the precious metal increases and inflation exceeds government forecasts, according to Central China Securities Holdings Co. and Guoyuan Securities Co.

Zijin Mining Group Co. and Zhongjin Gold Corp., the nation’s two biggest bullion producers, are good investments as consumer prices are expected to rise around 3.5 percent this month, Li Jun, a Shanghai-based strategist at Central China, said in an interview yesterday. Inflation accelerated to 3.3 percent in July, the highest since October 2008.

“In this...

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., North America’s largest iron-ore producer, said it’s still in talks with customers about how they will pay for the steelmaking raw material after a four-decade-old annual price system ended.

Changes to the pricing of iron ore and coking coal are “resulting in a more fluid and uncertain near-term pricing environment for these commodities,” the Cleveland-based company said today in a statement.

Macarthur Coal Ltd., the world’s largest producer of pulverized coal used by steelmakers, raised its full-year profit forecast as sales increased, bolstering speculation the company may be a takeover target.

Profit, excluding accounting adjustments, may be between A$115 million ($96 million) and A$125 million for the 12 months ended June 30, compared with its earlier forecast of A$103 million to A$113 million, Macarthur said today in a statement.

The Brisbane-based company rose 5.2 percent yesterday after Thailand’s Banpu Pcl agreed to buy the rest of Centennial Coal Co. for...

Centennial Coal has accepted a cash offer with a 40 per cent premium from Thailand’s Banpu, valuing the NSW coal miner at $2.4 billion.

As revealed by The Australian on its website earlier today, Centennial confirmed Banpu — Thailand’s biggest coal producer — has offered $6.20 a share for the 80 per cent of the Hunter Valley thermal coal producer it doesn’t already own.

Banpu said it would finance the deal through cash reserves and new and existing credit facilities. JPMorgan is advising Banpu, with UBS advising Centennial.

Two recent reports suggest that the alternative fuel of choice over the next 20 to 30 years won’t be nuclear, coal, oil, wind or solar – but rather,
natural gas.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal highlighted the fact that, even before the recent discovery of very large so-called “unconventional” reserves not easily recovered, natural gas had a number of clear advantages compared to other sources of energy.

First, compared to other carbon-based fuels such as oil, natural gas produces half the CO2, has none of the waste disposal problems associated with nuclear,...

Fights about proper ownership of natural resources, especially mined product, have been a feature of Australian public policy debate since early settlement. Lack of consultation, arbitrariness and an overweening and greedy government famously caused the Eureka rebellion.

Fast forward to today, we have all these ingredients minus the muskets, plus retrospectivity, sovereign risk, slavering international competitors such as Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa, and a growing capital strike.

Much of the future impact of the Rudd government’s new mining tax is thought to fall on...

The Australian sharemarket closed three per cent higher for the week, as middling-to-positive leads from European stocks and Wall Street culminated in a solid weekly close, after China rejected reports it was considering reviewing its European bond holdings.

For the week, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index gained 3.15 per cent to 4,457.5 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index jumped 7.58 per cent to 4,479 points.

AMP Capital Investors chief economist Shane Oliver said it looked like a correction in equities and commodities prices was under way, and a decent rally was beginning.

Mongolia Energy Corp, a former technology company that remade itself into a natural resources developer in 2007, will deliver its first coking coal cargo this August and is also looking at projects beyond Mongolia, a senior executive said.

Mineral rich Mongolia is attracting more attention from global investors after a deal in October with Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto to develop the $3 billion Oyu Tolgoi mine, one of the world’s biggest untapped copper and gold deposits.