Mining

Shares in Adelaide-based Flinders Mines plummeted on the stock market today after it announced a $6.7 million capital raising to complete a feasibility study on its Pilbara iron ore project.

Chevron Australia’s former general manager greater Gorgon area, Colin Beckett, has been appointed to the board of Australia’s largest onshore oil producer, South Australian company Beach Energy.

A subsidiary of mining services group Ausdrill has won its first international contract, which will be to supply drilling services at a tenement in Papua New Guinea held by Heritage Oil for an undisclosed sum.

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has lost her bid to keep secret details of her two estranged children's latest court challenge.

Mining services companies WesTrac and Orica have both announced further restructuring moves, including a reduction in their workforce, with Orica also announcing the sale of its chemicals business to a private equity group.

Oil prices have declined on scepticism that an OPEC meeting later this month will result in action to address mounting supplies.

Gold prices have closed at their highest level in nearly three weeks, spurred by a drop in the US dollar and tensions in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Skilled Group says it will buy-out its partner in the Offshore Marine Services Alliance joint venture for $6.9 million, and plans to merge it with its Broadsword Marine operations to create a single marine services business.

TFS Corporation non-executive director Dalton Gooding has been promoted to the role of non-executive chairman after joining the company just one month ago, after Patrick O’Connor stood down from the role at a board meeting this morning.

Mining groups fear standards could slip at Australian mines if Chinese companies are allowed to bring in their own workers.

The uranium industry is hoping to make trial shipments to India next year.

Burswood-based Programmed Maintenance Services has recorded a drop in after-tax profit for the six months to September to $9.8 million as a result of a continued fall in available work in the resources sector.

The Environmental Protection Authority has given conditional approval for Rio Tinto’s Koodaideri iron ore project in the Pilbara, but is cautious about the potential spread of asbestos that could result from where the mining giant proposes to construct a rail corridor.

Mining services contractor Viento Group has forecast a trading loss in the current half year after disclosing that recently acquired subsidiary HVLV has run into problems on one of its contracts.

Oil prices have dipped on news that Japan slipped back into recession and scepticism that OPEC will reach a deal to cut output.

Gold prices have ended lower as a stronger US dollar edges out investors' worries about tensions between Russia and the West.

Mining giant Rio Tinto will hold talks with China's Sinosteel Corporation to extend a joint venture iron ore project in the Pilbara.

Australian farmers and dairy processors will get a better deal than their New Zealand counterparts under a free trade agreement with China, the federal government says.

Gold miner Doray Minerals has inked a farm-in agreement with Iluka Resources for exploration in Iluka’s South Australian tenement portfolio.

IMX Resources will seek to raise $3 million as part of an entitlement offer for the exploration and evaluation at tenements on its Nachingwea property in Tanzania.

Aurizon's West Pilbara iron ore joint venture has won backing from one of Australia's big four banks, ANZ Banking Group.

Shares in Subiaco-based explorer TNG were up 20 per cent this morning, after the company announced it had signed a binding agreement with major Chinese steel-related raw material distributor Sinometal (Shanghai) Co., for its Northern Territory project.

Gold and silver prices have risen to a two-week high as a rush by investors to cover bets on lower prices accelerated a rebound in both markets.

More than 8,000 Glencore coal workers will be forced to take annual leave as the mining giant shuts down its Australian coal operations due to an oversupply of the commodity.

A major operator of car and truck dealerships says sales are performing well in a softer market.

A local software company and a Perth-based international mining consulting company have launched a new social media platform today they hope will revolutionize labour flexibility in the mining industry.

Sandfire Resources has filed proceedings in the Federal Court against the Centre for Australian Ethical Research over media releases published on its website last month, which Sandfire argues contained “misleading and deceptive” information.

Global crude futures plunged to fresh lows Thursday amid a swamped market as US production hit a new record and the market mulled Saudi denials of a price war.

Gold prices rose on Thursday, as investors reacted to reports of Russian troop movements in Ukraine and Moscow's threats to dispatch warplanes for maneuvers in the Gulf of Mexico.

Latin Resources has entered into a $3.12 million funding agreement with US-based Lind Partners Australia to fund the development of its copper projects and its Guadalupito Andaulsite heavy mineral sands project in Peru.

Oil prices retreated with traders fixed on the OPEC oil cartel which appears set to maintain output at an upcoming meeting despite ample global supplies of crude.

Gold prices are lower as the US dollar's gains drove investors out of the precious metal.