Category Archives: Mining

South Korean decision to close all coal-fired power plants by 2040 sounds alarm for Australian exports

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Decision announced at Cop30 climate conference signposts risks for Australia’s reliance on fossil fuel exports, analysts say

The Australian government has been urged to prepare for a shift away from thermal coal exports and accelerate green industries after one of its main international customers signed up to close all coal-fired power plants by 2040.

South Korea, Australia’s third-biggest market for coal burned to generate electricity, announced at the Cop30 climate conference in Brazil that it was joining the “powering past coal alliance”, a group of about 60 nations and 120 sub-national governments, businesses and organisations committed to phasing out the fossil fuel.

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London judge rules BHP Group liable for Brazil’s 2015 Samarco dam collapse

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About 600,000 people seeking compensation a decade on from disaster that killed 19 and devastated villages

The global mining company BHP Group has been found liable for the deadly 2015 collapse of a Brazilian dam, in a landmark ruling that could pave the way for a multibillion-dollar payout.

The high court in London on Friday, Mrs Justice O’Farrell ruled that BHP was responsible for the collapse of the Fundão dam in Mariana despite not owing the dam at the time.

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Search for West Virginia miner trapped by floodwater extends into fourth day

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Rescuers have been seeking unnamed man since pocket of water inundated Rolling Thunder mine on Saturday

Emergency responders have been trying to reach a miner trapped deep inside a flooded West Virginia coalmine since Saturday, according to authorities.

A mining crew hit an unknown pocket of water on Saturday about three-quarters of a mile into the Rolling Thunder mine near Drennen, about 50 miles (80km) east of the state capital of Charleston, the Nicholas county commissioner, Garrett Cole, said in a Facebook post.

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Cobar: two people killed in Endeavour mine explosion in far western NSW

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Woman and man confirmed dead and another woman airlifted to hospital after blast at underground Endeavour mine 600km north-west of Sydney

Two people have been killed by an explosion at an underground mine in the far west of New South Wales.

Police said emergency services were called to the mine on Endeavour Mine Road at Cobar, about 600km north-west of Sydney, at about 3.45am on Tuesday after being told two people had been critically injured in a workplace incident.

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Australia’s largest aluminium smelter Tomago ‘not commercially viable’ and facing closure, says Rio Tinto

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Consultation over future pathway with employees as smelter struggles with high power prices

Rio Tinto says it is contemplating ceasing operations at its New South Wales-based Tomago aluminium smelter at the end of its current electricity supply contract.

The Tomago aluminium smelter, Australia’s largest, had been struggling with high power prices. It had started a consultation process with employees on the potential future of its operations, but was yet to reach a decision and is weighing a possible closure.

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US may take strategic stakes in rare earths companies to tackle China ‘power grab’

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Treasury secretary Scott Bessent raises possibility of taking more direct stakes in companies to protect national security in wake of Beijing’s curbs on rare earths exports

The Trump administration has criticised China’s increased restrictions on rare earth exports as a threat to global supply chains, and said it would seek to tighten control over strategic sectors by taking more stakes in key companies to counter Beijing.

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent told an event on Wednesday that China’s dramatic new restrictions on rare earth minerals and magnets demonstrated the need for the US to be self-sufficient in critical materials or rely more on trusted allies.

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Trump orders approval of 211-mile mining road through Alaska wilderness

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Ambler Road project, approved in Trump’s first term but blocked by Biden, would harm Native tribes and wildlife

Donald Trump on Monday ordered the approval of a proposed 211-mile road through an Alaska wilderness to allow mining of copper, cobalt, gold and other minerals.

The long-debated Ambler Road project was approved in the US president’s first term, but was later blocked by the Biden administration after an analysis determined the project would threaten caribou and other wildlife and harm Alaska Indigenous tribes that rely on hunting and fishing.

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Albanese hopes China’s reported BHP iron ore ban ‘very much short-term’ as ASX dips

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Treasurer Jim Chalmers and BHP CEO Mike Henry to discuss reports of Chinese iron ore blockade

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will meet with the boss of BHP amid a shock report that the world’s largest mining company faces a Chinese blockade on its iron ore shipments.

Beijing’s state iron ore buyer has told steelmakers to pause imports of BHP ore, amid hardball negotiations over the price of the crucial resource, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

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Clive Palmer banks on Swiss strategy after court throws out $305bn mine compensation claim

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Queensland mining magnate had been ordered to pay $13m after tribunal dismissed claim of being a ‘foreign investor’

Clive Palmer says he will challenge the decision of an international tribunal to dismiss his claim for $305bn in compensation from the commonwealth government, by appealing to a court in Switzerland.

On Saturday the attorney general, Michelle Rowland, announced that the permanent court of arbitration, in The Hague, the Netherlands, had ruled against the Queensland mining magnate.

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Clive Palmer ordered to pay $13m after claim of being ‘foreign investor’ in Australian mining project thrown out

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Attorney general says mining magnate is ‘not a foreign investor’ and is ‘not entitled to any benefits under Australia’s free trade and investment agreements’

The Australian mining magnate Clive Palmer has been ordered to pay more than $13m after his claim of being a “foreign investor” was dismissed by an international tribunal after a dispute lasting more than a decade.

The permanent court of arbitration, established by international treaties, rejected Palmer’s claim as it had no jurisdiction over the dispute between a national government and one of its citizens, the attorney general, Michelle Rowland, said on Saturday.

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Records of deadly 1934 pit explosion in Wrexham to be displayed near site

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Documents include letters calling for recovery of bodies and a falsified safety log that was part of a cover-up

Poignant records relating to a colliery disaster in the 1930s that lay unseen for decades at the National Archives are being put on display close to the site of the mine in north Wales.

Among the documents at the west London archive are petitions and emotional letters calling for the bodies trapped in the underground explosion at the pit in Gresford to be recovered. Despite the heartfelt entreaties, the vast majority remain there.

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BHP blames ‘coal tax’ for job layoffs. But there’s obvious reasons coalmines aren’t as profitable anymore

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Rising wages and costs of having to dig deeper for minerals – not royalty payments – are behind job cuts in a sector that appears to be in decline

Australia’s big miners are not averse to a political fight.

Consider the biggest miner of them all: BHP.

Jonathan Barrett is business editor of Guardian Australia

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Value of Australia’s coal and gas exports will plunge 50% in five years, treasury modelling forecasts

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Figure amounts to a $60bn fall by 2030 under any future scenario of emissions reduction in Australia, modelling predicts

The value of Australia’s coal and gas exports is predicted to plummet by 50% over the next five years as global demand for fossil fuel falls, according to Treasury modelling.

The modelling, released on Thursday as the government announced its emissions reduction target for 2035, found the annual value of fossil fuel exports is predicted to fall by more than $60bn by 2030 under any future scenario of emissions reduction within Australia.

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Queensland deputy premier labels BHP ‘unAustralian’ as mining giant blames job cuts on coal royalties scheme

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Jarrod Bleijie defends levy as BHP Mitsubishi Alliance moves to mothball Saraji South mine and slash 750 jobs

Queensland’s deputy premier has labelled BHP “unAustralian” and defended the state’s mining royalties scheme after the mining giant blamed it for its decision to mothball a coalmine and cut hundreds of jobs while also reviewing the future of its training academy.

On Wednesday, BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) announced a decision to suspend operations at its Saraji South coalmine and slash 750 roles across the state, blaming “unsustainable” royalties and market conditions.

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Plan to extend Queensland coalmine would bulldoze ‘critical’ koala habitat

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Glencore says it is working with state and federal governments to minimise the impact of flora and fauna in the 680ha area west of Mackay

Habitat for threatened koalas that are part of a population described by one expert as nationally significant would be bulldozed under plans to extend a Queensland coalmine.

The campaign group Lock the Gate used drones with thermal imaging cameras to find 13 koalas in one night in trees earmarked for clearing by mining company Glencore.

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Body found in collapsed Chile mine as search continues for trapped miners

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At least 100 people involved in rescue operation at El Teniente copper mine, which partially collapsed after ‘seismic event’

One of five miners trapped after a partial collapse at the world’s largest underground copper mine has been found dead, Chile’s state-owned Codelco group announced on Saturday, as rescuers continued their search for survivors.

The collapse took place on Thursday at the El Teniente mine in Rancagua, 100km south of Santiago, after a “seismic event.”

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Adani promised Australia billions from its Carmichael mine but it hasn’t paid a cent in tax. How did we get here?

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The coalmine generated millions in revenue in its early days but recorded an operating loss – a pattern that would repeat at scale

It was entirely foreseeable, and has resulted in billions of dollars in forgone revenue for Australia.

But just how did policymakers fail to extract a single cent in company tax from Adani’s Carmichael coalmine, even though it opened during the start of a commodity price boom?

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UK watchdog investigates eight years of Deloitte audits of mining firm Glencore

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FRC examines whether accounting firm ‘gave sufficient consideration to risk of non-compliance with laws’

The accounting firm Deloitte is under investigation by the sector regulator over eight years of its audits into the FTSE 100 commodities and mining company Glencore and a UK subsidiary.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said it was looking into whether Deloitte’s audits of Glencore and its subsidiary Glencore Energy UK for the financial years ending 2013 to 2020 “gave sufficient consideration to the risk of non-compliance with laws and regulations”.

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Large rise in abuse claims at mines that may be vital to EU’s energy transition, report says

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Researchers find 270 allegations at mineral projects across 13 countries in Europe and central Asia last year

Mines on the EU’s periphery that could be critical to its energy transition have recorded a large rise in allegations of abuse ranging from workplace deaths to soil pollution, a report has found, with a threefold increase in 2024 from the average of the five previous years.

The nonprofit Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) found 270 allegations of environmental and human rights abuses in transition mineral projects across 13 countries in Europe and central Asia last year, up from 92 the year before.

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Peru drops plan to shrink protected area around Nazca Lines archaeological site

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Critics had claimed that plan announced in May exposed complex of desert etchings to impact of informal mining

Peru’s government has abandoned a plan that reduced the size of a protected area around the country’s ancient Nazca Lines, after criticism the change made them vulnerable to the impact of informal mining operations.

Peru’s culture ministry said on Sunday that it was reinstating with immediate effect the protected area covering 5,600 square kilometers (2,200 square miles), that in late May had been cut back to 3,200 sq km. The government said at the time the decision was based on studies that had more precisely demarcated areas with “real patrimonial value”.

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