Tim Treadgold

IT’S not easy to see the positive aspect to the mothballing of the onshore gas-processing hub proposed for the Browse LNG project on the Kimberley coast.

The artificial currency, Bitcoin, won’t trigger the next crash, but its mere existence is a sign of the problems facing financial markets.

No farmer would ever invite a fox into his hen-house, but a close look over the past few days at the strategic link forged by the one-time Australian flag-carrier, Qantas Airways, with Dubai-based

Westpac’s latest national economic analysis tips a slowdown in growth, something for which it seems not many are prepared.

Australia’s dollar ought to be falling, a point underlined today by another weak analysis of manufacturing, but any hope of relief for manufacturing, mining or agriculture has been killed by events in Cyprus and the flood of capital pouring out of Europe into safer places, including Australia.

It’s no surprise Chinese investors in Australia’s resources sector want to maximise their opportunities, but the outcomes won’t always be favourable for the locals.

Forget the politics. Focus on the money.

The rising markets may be a false dawn, with two top economists, whose warnings were ignored before the GFC, ringing alarm bells again.

Bankers might have caused the never-ending global financial crisis but it is politicians who are perpetuating it as the latest European farce, a raid on bank accounts held in Cyprus, so brilliantly

The reality on future iron ore prices may be somewhere in the middle of the most dire predictions and those of the eternal optimists.

It’s a good thing for the re-elected state government that the property market is rising, because without an increase in stamp duty from extra house sales, the state budget could develop a large ho

When the big players start exiting a sector it’s a fair bet things are on the slide; and so it is with with the Lowy family’s decision to quit its retail trust.

Political and environmental pressure on the state government, whichever side wins on Saturday, will have no effect on the future of the onshore gas processing centre proposed for James Price Point

If any further evidence were needed that the commodities boom is over, management changes at some of the world’s biggest resources companies seals the deal.

Psst! Wanna buy a second-hand, slightly shop-soiled nickel mining business?

A large number of small miners are scraping the bottom of the barrel, with tight funds hampering exploration and, therefore, viability.

If Australia was a shop, the owner has just hung out a sign saying “closed until after the election”, a point driven home by instability at the highest level of government, the latest ludicrous attempt to boost manufacturing, and more so because no-one in business has dared criticise the loopy plan.

Rather than embracing the economic opportunity its mining sector offers, South Africa is struggling with bureaucratic and labour problems.

The late Robert Holmes a Court loved what he called “black letter law” - written so tightly by governments that they thought no-one could find a loophole, but which to him was merely a mental puzzle - the sort solved by BHP Billiton as it revved up a 320-tonne Komatsu ore-truck and drove it through the minerals resource rent tax.

After dealing itself out of the market in the early 2000s, Russia may take advantage of a resurgent palladium price.

There will be some glum faces among the many Australian goldminers in Cape Town this week for the world’s second biggest mining conference, the annual Mining Indaba, because their favourite metal s

Traditional business models are still playing catch-up with the internet.

Claude Dauphin and Gina Rinehart are two of the richest people in the world with fortunes built on commodities, but that’s where the comparison ends because Dauphin is pessimistic about future comm

International miners have a lot to learn about the Australian resources sector.

SAM Walsh has been thrust into the big chair at one of the world’s biggest companies, Rio Tinto, which has finally decided to clean up the last of the mess left by the GFC.

Until now the skills shortage which has dogged the resources sector has been all about a lack of tradesmen and technical professionals whereas the Rio Tinto crisis reveals that the real problem is

Sam Walsh has the chance of a lifetime to head one of the world’s biggest companies, but he won’t be chief executive of Rio Tinto for long, and he’s only there because the board has finally decided

Cautious bankers might prefer iron ore prices to be locked in before committing to major projects.

Apart from being the best looking currency in a world full of ugly competitors there are not many reasons for the Australian dollar to continue trading above $US1.05, leaving open the question as t

It’s an odd day when people selling something say the price will be cheaper tomorrow, but if you think about what has been happening in the market for WA’s most important commodity export, iron ore

Competition in the retail sector is getting tougher as marketing and technology merge, with smaller businesses likely to be left behind.

Troy Buswell might have made a few bad personal decisions in recent years but he is absolutely correct in refusing to surrender control of Western Australia’s ability to apply mining royalties to C