Esther Tanquintic-Misa

The state government of Queensland in Australia on Tuesday has given a conditional stamp of approval to the $6.4 billion joint project of India's GVK Power & Infrastructure and Hancock Coal owned by the world's richest woman, Australian mining billionaire Gina Rinehart.

Out to conquer every probable location of natural resource in the world, China, is mulling to start working on developing its deep-sea mining technology by as early as 2030, state news agency Xinhua News reported.

China's statistical authorities on Tuesday announced that the average income of both private and government Chinese workers jumped by double digits in 2011 across various employment categories.

Barrick Gold Corp. has acquired the Mill Canyon property in Nevada for $24 million from Victoria Gold Corp., effectively expanding by some 7,000 acres the area it owns in the vicinity of its Cortez gold mine project.

U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs, through its unit Colombian Natural Resources SAS, has purchased for $407 million the thermal coal assets of Vale SA, the world's largest iron-ore producer, in Colombia.

Determined to re-ignite its apparent lackluster-bound economy, China has given the go signal for at least some 100 key investment projects in the month of May alone, the newspaper China Times reported.

Iron ore prices are set to get more competitive in the following months as global iron ore miners Vale SA, BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto, along with some giant Chinese steel producers, launch on middle this week yet another new iron ore global pricing system.

Unless some evidence of construction work has been made by year end on the programmed $33 billion expansion of theOlympic Dam copper and uranium mine project, it is likely that Australia might revoke the right to proceed it had given to mine owner and developer BHP Billiton Ltd.

Australian uranium project developer and explorer Toro Energy Limited, owner of the currently highly controversial Wiluna uranium mine, has announced the discovery of more uranium mineralised areas in its wholly owned Theseus uranium project in Western Australia.

In what could be a sign of vindication to its earlier construction delays, initial production of Australia's newly-commissioned Pluto liquefied natural gas (LNG) Project by Woodside Petroleum Ltd. has been three times more versus what has been forecast for the month of May.

Italian fashion brand label Prada SpA is about to embark on an ambitious expansion rollout in the next three years mainly to pursue the promising income from the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) as well as from countries in the Persian Gulf.

The flight of China's first commercial plane has been delayed owing to the rescheduling done by Chinese authorities of its final airworthiness test certification.

A group of domestic and international banks has granted in principle the $8.5 billion in project financing needed to finally drumroll the $20 billion Australia Pacific liquefied natural gas (LNG) project of Origin Energy Ltd. and ConocoPhillips.

Prices of rare earths from China have been reported posting a dropping trend this week.

Manufacturers of high tech gadgets that use rare earths are in for more good news as Canadian miner Matamec Explorations Inc. announced on Wednesday the mineral processing and hydrometallurgical pilot plants needed to jumpstart the operations on its flagship Kipawa rare earth project are on schedule.

Protesters against the proposed construction of the uranium mine project in Wiluna town in the northern Goldfields raised Australia is inciting global destruction should it continue to push with the project.

With no more nuclear reactors to help augment its energy requirements, Japan's imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as well as crude oil have soared by as much as 14.9 per cent and 12.9 per cent, respectively, in April, data from the country's Ministry of Finance said.

The government of the Philippines stands to gain as much as $13 billion from the proposed copper-and-gold mine project to be constructed by Xstrata-owned Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) in the southern part of the country, the BusinessMirror newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The fate of whether to release or not the highly controversial temporary operating license (TOL) that Lynas Corp. needs to fire up its beleaguered rare earths processing plant in Malaysia has been committed to be known in the next two weeks.

Effective January 2013, exports of Australian products into Malaysia will get to enjoy 97.6 per cent tariff-free entry and will increase to 99 per cent by 2017.

Taiwan has alleged that China is working on building its own warships or aircraft carriers which it can use for eventual warfare in the future.

Australia, which has yet to fully develop its rare earths sector, is eyeing France, the UK and Germany as possible export targets for its future rare earths and lithium products.

Companies engaged in producing raw commodities, particularly coal, iron ore and copper, may look to sunnier skies as China jumps to apply solutions to control its slowing economy. Specifically, the country is looking to the infrastructure sector to lead this economic rally, state-backed newspaper China Securities Journal reported on Tuesday.

Amid the hype brought by China's suspension of coal and iron ore cargo shipments and its apparent controlled economic slowdown, the copper unit of Xstrata, the world's fourth-largest copper miner, remained confident the world's second-largest economy will continue to import its main product nonetheless.

As expected, opponents have come out to challenge what could be Australia's first ever uranium mine project.The Conservation Council of Western Australia (CCWA) said it is opposed to the construction of the uranium mine project in Wiluna town in the northern Goldfields on the basis that Toro Energy has yet to provide a safe and reliable track record in uranium mine construction, development and maintenance.

Saudi Arabia has eclipsed Russia as the world's biggest oil producer first time in six years after the country in the Middle East jacked up its crude output to a 31-year high in March.

In what could be a firm testament of its cooling economic activity, a number of China's raw commodity trading houses have suspended their cargo shipments of coal and iron ore amid the continued drop of the prices of the two commodities in the world market.

Osaka-based Kansai Electric has received its 70,000 metric tonne liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo shipment order from the Pluto LNG project of Australia.

Western Australia is poised to have its first uranium mine project, to be operated by Toro Energy.