Iron ore miners Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group have announced initiatives designed to assist local suppliers, with Rio establishing a dedicated procurement team and FMG shortening payment terms.
The share market ended the day steady after early gains by the big four banks evaporated in afternoon trade, and miners fall on weaker iron ore futures.
Gold hopeful Impact Minerals is aiming to raise $4 million through a share purchase plan to fund exploration at is Commonwealth gold-silver-base metals project in NSW.
The construction union and seven of its officials, including Joe McDonald and Mick Buchan, have incurred penalties totalling $277,000 for unlawful blockades of the Perth Children's Hospital site.
The new bank levy has opened a Pandora's box that leaves Australia's biggest financial institutions exposed to even higher costs in future, according to a leading industry analyst.
The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies has strongly criticised a federal government decision to abolish the exploration development incentive tax concession, which it warns will have severe consequences in a climate where exploration is already soft.
Altona Mining has received Foreign Investment Review Board approval for a subsidiary of Chinese company Sichuan Railway Investment Group to invest more than $US200 million to set up its Cloncurry copper project in Queensland.
West Perth-based gold miner Beadell Resources has started work on a $US28 million plant upgrade project at its Tucano gold mine in Brazil, with commissioning to get under way in the middle of 2018.
The major shareholders in Wellard, including China's Fulida Group Holdings and local agribusiness Heytesbury, are expected to lift their stake in the livestock exporter after a big shortfall from its rights issue.
Oil prices have risen more than three per cent, bolstered by the biggest one-week drop in US inventories so far this year, and after Iraq and Algeria joined Saudi Arabia in supporting an extension to OPEC supply cuts.
Gold has turned lower but has held above the previous day's eight-week low as US President Trump's abrupt firing of FBI chief James Comey weighed on US stocks, though gains were capped by expectations of further interest rate increases.
The Australian share market has recovered from a poor start to close higher, but most of the big banks still face some pressure after the Turnbull government's budget announcement of a $6.2 billion levy.
The state government has confirmed that Perth Stadium will not be ready to host the Ashes cricket Test in December this year, saying the first confirmed event was an Ed Sheeran concert on March 3 2018.
Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi has accused the premier and opposition leader of political interference in a legal process after they demanded her resignation over serious breaches of local government laws.
Amani Gold has signed a memorandum of understanding with a little-known Chinese investment group to raise $25 million via a share issue to fund drilling at the Giro Gold project in the Congo.
Big banks have warned that customers and shareholders will carry the cost of the federal government's surprise $6.2 billion levy on Australia's largest financial institutions.
Pilbara Minerals has been given a final environmental tick for its Pilgangoora lithium project, and is now cleared for construction, but the company will be continuing work on project financing.
The state government has awarded three new roads projects to the contractors that had been working on the Roe 8 development, while also confirming the net cost of abandoning the latter project will be about $45 million.
Shares in sandalwood supplier Quintis were down 44 per cent today after the company admitted it had lost a contract supplying Nestle five months ago, the second issue relating to a contract this year.
South32 shares have dropped as much as 5.5 per cent after the diversified miner said it expected coking coal production from its Illawarra operations to be at least 10 per cent below guidance.
The Australian share market has opened lower with the major banks leading losses after the federal budget revealed a levy on the big four banks and Macquarie.
The Australian dollar is slightly higher against its US counterpart after having lost almost half a per cent before the federal budget helped prompt a turnaround.
Oil prices have fallen rattled by concern over slowing demand, a rising US dollar and increasing US crude output that has shaken investors' faith in the ability of OPEC to rebalance the market.
