Esther Tanquintic-Misa

China Steel has been reportedly mulling of buying stakes in various overseas coal and iron ore mines, with a $2.5 billion budget to spend, over the next four years.

After a decade, Kimberley's cotton growers are harvesting cotton once more. The ABC reported around 800 hectares of GM cotton will be balled up by a Queensland contract harvester next month.

Cattle owners are in for good news as the drought forecast to hit US beef exports will give Australia's cattle industry the opportunity to increase output and take advantage of near-record prices.

For the carbon tax law to be effective and efficient, governments must not only look on imposing them on businesses and manufacturers, particularly mining groups involved in oil, coal, natural gas and other fossil fuels exploration. Governments must also look into taxing a plain consumer to complete the whole carbon supply chain.

China's September power output continued on double-digits for an eighth consecutive month even as the world's second-largest economy reported a slowed down economic activity.

Australia's wheat inventories may surge to between 8 million and 10 million metric tonnes by Sept. 30 from as much as 7.3 million tonnes a year ago as coal-mining companies' fight for rail capacity led to transport bottlenecks in the eastern states.

Copper fell hard on Tuesday after China reported its economy grew at its slowest pace in two years and as German Chancellor Angela Merkel extinguished hopes that a plan will be announced next week geared to contain the eurozone's debt crisis and prevent a possible Greek default.

It has begun. Politics, along with political grandstanding, are most likely to hamper the start of expansion works into BHP Billiton's $30-billion Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine project.

Unemployment jitters have alluded at least 5,000 workers of Rio Tinto after the Anglo-Australian global miner announced on Monday it wants to divest from thirteen of its aluminum units, including refineries and smelters, to restructure its Alcan aluminum business and reinforce the company's financial performance.

Analysts and mines experts had predicted prices of iron ore, Australia's most lucrative export commodity, could fall as low as $140 per tonne in the coming months.

Queensland Mining Corporation announced it recently discovered a new high grade copper discovery on Horseshoe ML and Duck Creek EPM. It was the first recorded discovery of high grade sulphides in the area, at its Duck Creek Project, south of Cloncurry.

Oil, gas, coal and iron ore mines face possible destruction in the coming months, not to price fluctuations and the ongoing global fiscal crisis, but to a potentially brutal cyclone season brought by a returning La Niña.

The weekend conclusion of talks among Group of 20 finance chiefs, where it approved parts of a plan to contain the eurozone's debt crisis and prevent a possible Greek default, has led commodities futures, particularly copper and oil, to rise on Monday.

Speculations are brewing in the iron ore mining and steel mills industries that China has been offered to purchase the iron ore raw material for fourth-quarter contracts at a much cheaper rate.

Australian air carrier Qantas Airways faces a possible legal clash, this time from a stricken mother after the labor beleaguered airliner admitted losing her unaccompanied child last month at the Hobart Airport.

BHP Biliton is mulling to acquire Brazilian iron ore producer Ferrous Resources as the Anglo-Australian miner seizes opportunities to scout for low-priced commodities projects brought by the pressing current low valuations of iron ore markets.

The state government of New South Wales (NSW) had agreed to extend some portions of its proposed Dharawal National Park to BHP Billiton, in what seems to be a continuing winning streak for Anglo-Australian global miner.

Iron ore prices are set to get more competitive in the following months as BHP Billiton, along with other iron ore miners and steel producers, mull the creation of a new iron ore global pricing system by year-end or early 2012.

BHP Billiton's $30 billion worth Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine project faced its strongest opposition on Thursday as the Greens slammed an indenture agreement that stipulates royalty payments by the global mining company to the South Australian government over the mining project expansion will remain fixed for 45 years.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced on Thursday it has lodged an appeal against a recent Federal Court decision that cleared Google Inc. from alleged online search and online advertisements malpractices.

Can sex really, literally blow one's mind? Well, apparently, it can.In a case study published in the Journal of Emergency Medicine, September issue, a 54-year-old woman experienced temporary memory loss after having sex with her husband. The patient came into the Georgetown University Hospital emergency department, unable to recall what transpired in the last 24 hours... or at least before climaxing.

Speculations are ripe that China is into a copper buying spree after the world's second-largest economy voluntarily disclosed the size of its copper inventories.

A day after the Lower House of Representatives of Australia passed the carbon tax plan, the government of PM Julia Gillard pushed further its goals of reinventing Australia into an environment-conscious nation. Government announced the appointment of Jillian Broadbent to chair the panel working on the design of the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), as well as introduced two bills to establish the creation of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

The proposed alliance between Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia is almost as good as a done deal as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced on Thursday it is finalizing necessary paper works that will ultimately conclude and seal the integrated network aviation alliance between the two airlines.

Barely a few hours after the House of Representatives approved yesterday the carbon tax plan, a few enterprising individuals have taken advantage of taxing consumers by already adding the tax on their goods and services, even as the controversial carbon tax plan has yet to gain final approval at the Australian Senate.

Coal producing miners better get their act together and prepare this early for a possible weather disturbance of a returning La Niña.

On Oct. 19, Wednesday, the staff and workers of Apple Inc will hold a celebratory memorial in honor of its co-founder Steve Jobs, who died on Oct. 5.

The fact that it heralded Australia's economy into what it is now is an understatement. Its contribution of 5 per cent into the country's GDP is fair enough proof of what the mining sector had done for Australia.

Asia-Pacific trading of gold futures climbed higher Wednesday after Slovakia's rejection of the improvements to the European Financial Stability Facility.