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Minimum wage earners have far higher life satisfaction than the unemployed and they are also just as happy with their lives as medium wage workers, a study from Curtin University's Business School has found.

Speaking at Fortescue Metals Group's AGM this afternoon, the Perth-based mining company's chief executive, Andrew Forrest announced his company has enhanced long term contracts with its Chinese customers.

Apex Minerals has commenced commissioning of the plant and increased gold ore reserves at its cornerstone Wiluna mine, extending the projected life of the mine to four years.

West Perth-based Equinox Minerals has accepted handover of the process plant and related infrastructure at its Lumwana copper project in Zambia.

Macmahon Holdings has been awarded an $89 million dollar road contract for the Tiger Brennan Drive Extension Project in Darwin.

Eastern states-based law firm, Middletons is merging with two of Perth's boutique corporate law firms, Salter Power and Franklyn Legal.

Straits Resources is reviewing the viability of two if its copper mines, including the Whim Creek copper mine in WA, after a dramatic drop in the world copper price.

Range Resources will be pursuing legal action following an article in published by The Age newspaper in Melbourne under the heading "Mining Firm tied to Somali Oil Pirates."

Despite all the doom and gloom, including today's turmoil on the Australian stockmarket, consumers are still spending up big, particularly on their credit cards.

The Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley and the Consolidated Pastoral Company have reached an agreement to upgrade a road, triggering the conversion of 16,000 hectares of pastoral land to freehold in the next step to expand the Ord River Irrigation Scheme.

South Perth-based uranium company Extract Resources' proposed merger agreement with London-listed Kalahari Minerals has been terminated.

Uranio has acquired a thermal coal project in the Sakoa Basin of Madagascar called Imaloto, plus an associated cash injection worth more than $2 million in a deal with Coal of Africa and Oak Nominees for 50 million shares.

It's OK to go into red - RBA; Babcock to cut itself in two; BHP softens plans to increase production; Reynolds re-election renews ABCC push; Razor gang with sharp eye for WA cuts

An electric car that costs just $1.40 every 100 kilometres will be launched at the University of Western Australia in Perth today.

THE state government has lifted the moratorium on the commercial production of genetically modified cotton in the Ord River Irrigation Area, renewing calls for it to move on the Ord Stage Two project.

BRIEFCASE is amazed at the poor understanding of market dynamics shown by many commentators and self-appointed analysts.

WELL It's time to face it. You take the most pessimistic analysis of the global economic situation and we're in for tough times.

ONCE the most energetic and successful married couple in global mining, Phil and Viv Snowden have re-emerged after 18 months with plans to take on a new industry - wine.

THE growing number of mass participation events in Perth has provided fertile ground for benevolent institutions looking for more creative means to raise funds and deliver their message of goodwill.

BARACK Obama made the sale. Sixty three million people were sold on his potential ability to lead and govern. And they did so without the benefit of actually seeing what he will do.

PERRON Group's shopping centre and office ownership has helped it comfortably absorb more than $100 million from downward revaluations of its equity investments.

HOSPITALITY entrepreneurs Kristan Roche and Chris Sweeney are taking Victoria Park a step closer to the vibe of Mount Lawley or Leederville with their first venue, The Imp.

THE Western Australian business community has given a mixed reaction to the latest review into 457 visas, the Deegan Report, released by Immigration Minister Chris Evans last week.

WESTERN Australia's South West has expanded its offering for foodies of all kinds this summer.

PERTH company AgritechSmart-Water has commissioned an economic review of its plans to use Wellington Dam as a major new source of water for the South West.

THE residential population of the area encompassed by the City of Perth is forecast to double in the next 20 years, as the number of new dwellings and net migration numbers grow.

WHO remembers the final week of the 2008 state election campaign, when then premier Alan Carpenter ran an increasingly desperate and almost bizarre scare campaign? Every waking moment he told voters about the supposed dangers posed by uranium mining, nucl

A REPORT released this week has provided the first accurate and detailed picture of the Western Australian forestry industry, which employs 5,570 people, half of whom rely on native forest resources.

IN her doctorate on the impact of fly in, fly out (FIFO) on workers, the University of Western Australia's Susan Clifford has found that FIFO is not having the deleterious effect the tabloid headlines would have us believe.

REDEPLOYMENT has become the new buzzword in Western Australian human resources circles, most notably in the engineering services sector, which involves a number of the state's largest employers.

TRANSPARENCY is a fascinating concept and last week I encountered two vastly different examples of its application, or more accurately, its absence.

AT first glance it's hard to imagine there's much similarity between running warehouse hardware stores and private hospitals.