Esther Tanquintic-Misa

The Australian dollar jumped on Thursday after latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed the country's August unemployment rate fell to 5.1 per cent from 5.2 per cent in July.

A new global Web index launched by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has found that Australian ranked eighth best in utilising the Internet to improve people's lives, both socially and politically. Sweden ranked first, followed by the U.S. in second and the UK in third.

Shares of Australian troubled surfwear retailer Billabong International jumped like crazy after the company announced it has attracted a second suitor from an unnamed party which gave a A$694 million ($707 million) offer, at par with rival bidder TPG Capital.

Some 40,000 teachers took part in what could be Victoria state's biggest teachers' strike that forced 400 schools to close and left thousands of school kids to stay home these past days.

Two days after the Indian High Court allowed 18 iron ore mines to resume mining activities in Karnataka after a more than a year of suspension on environment concerns, the country is now thinking to reduce the export taxes on its iron ore shipments.

Two days after the Indian High Court allowed 18 iron ore mines to resume mining activities in Karnataka, India, the government now considers reducing export taxes on its iron ore shipments.

Australia's gold output in the first six months of 2012, the world's second-largest producer of the precious metal, fell 5 per cent from a year ago on declining ore grades, construction and commissioning delays and slower than expected ramp-ups of output at a number of properties, international metals consultancy GFMS, a unit of Thomson Reuters Corp., said on Wednesday.

Supposed recession-bound Australia continued to fight off for economic growth, advancing 0.6 per cent in the three months to the end of June, but admittedly was a slow roll for the resource-rich country.

The Australian federal government will no longer be pursuing a contract that seeks to pay out the country's dirtiest coal-fired power generators fter negotiations with their respective owners bogged down.

The government of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, in a firm commitment to eradicate the deadly, toxic fibre asbestos from houses and all government and commercial buildings around the country by 2030, is set to establish a national asbestos agency where the beneficiaries of its first clean-up drive are schools.

The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC) has urged on Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her government to grant more incentives specially to small to mid-tier miners to boost continued mining exploration activities in the resource-rich nation in the midst of falling commodity prices and slowing growth in China, its major trading partner.

Prices of iron ore may have plummeted faster than a speeding bullet in the last couple of weeks, but industry experts and analysts project its recovery will surge also as fast by the fourth quarter of this year.

Close to 100 people at the Argyle Diamonds subsidiary of the Rio Tinto Group are poised to lose their jobs as the company implements a cost-cutting plan amid plans to divest the diamond business unit.

With prices of key steel-making ingredient iron continue to dip in the world market, with no potential rainbow at the end of the tunnel seen yet in the next few months, global miners are reduced to implement drastic strategies to keep the business afloat.

A funding dispute over a proposed 2.6 billion euro ($3.3 billion) liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant between Iran and a Chinese consortium has been postponed.

At least 18 iron ore mines have been granted permission by the High Court of India on Monday to resume mining activities in Karnataka after a more than a year of suspension on environment concerns, pointing to what could mean 5 million tonnes a year of renewed production.

Philippine gold and copper miner Philex Mining Corp. may be forced to indefinitely suspend operations at its Padcal mine in Benguet province as the mining firm mulls to replace the facility following a second wave of leak spill last week.

Sparks are a-flying in a heated debate after Australia approved over the weekend the sale of giant cotton farm Cubbie Station to a Chinese consortium.

Two months after it acquired a 4 per cent controlling stake in Virgin Australia Holdings, Abu Dhabi's flagship carrier Etihad Airways on Sunday announced this has been increased to 10 per cent, even as it reiterated it will not push for a majority stake ownership in Australia's second-largest airline.

Largely affected by the continued slide in the prices of iron ore in the world market, the Australian dollar, for the first time in five weeks, has dropped below the $US1.0300 mark.

Toronto-listed rare earths miner Great Western Minerals Group (GWMG) said it is ready to offer to consumers the precious elements by mid-2013 as it had started the refurbishment of its previously producing rare-earths mine Steenkampskraal in South Africa's Northern Cape province.

After losing two major mining investments due to project cancellations, South Australia remained confident it would continue to remain a favored mining destination of global miners.

Even Australian miners know how costly it is to build projects in the native land. So rather than risk it in Australia at this time of dropping commodity prices, might as well build a project portfolio elsewhere in the world where administrative and construction costs are low to ensure higher profit return. And Africa could just be the answer to that.

Opponents to the rare earths processing plant of Lynas Corp. in Malaysia scored a win after a Malaysian High Court this week approved to hear the application for two judicial reviews lodged against the plant's temporary operating license (TOL).

Darker days loom ahead for the world's miners especially of the key steel-making ingredient iron ore as an oversupply of the key commodity could dampen the positive forecast of renewed appetite made at the beginning of the first half of 2012.

With a mining boom about to fizzle, Australia may well rely on its grain sector to anchor the country's economic growth in the next few years.And as with its mining sector, the Australia's grain sector may well enjoy a growth spurt still from its largest and strongest trading partner, China.

Australia's much touted liquefied natural gas (LNG) boom may boomerang as not so much as a boom what with the flurry of natural gas discoveries being made in Africa right now. Moreover, the growing building costs in the country spurred by labour and material shortages further pose a threat to the situation.

Two weeks after Chery Auto, China's largest domestic automobile manufacturer and exporter, recalled some 23,000 vehicle units from Australia due to findings of potential cancer-causing asbestos in some models, the company announced it is set to recall an additional 18,000 units from overseas, still due to the same reason.

Tokyo Gas, top city gas supplier of Japan, has forged a basic agreement to purchase liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Malaysia at 900,000 tonnes annually for 10 years, effective April 2015.