Rio tinto

Global miner BHP Billiton's boss, Marius Kloppers, confirmed on Wednesday he had harboured concerns about Chinese and competitor espionage on his business, citing it as a reason behind his push for market pricing of key commodities.

Zimbabwe has drastically increased exploration fees for diamonds and coal, in an effort to discourage companies from speculating on mining claims, state media reported on Wednesday.

Miner Xstrata Plc reported a surge in profit for the full year on stronger commodity prices, and proposed a final dividend of 20 cents a share, reflecting a return to pre-financial crisis levels.

Australia evacuated thousands of people from its northeast coast on Tuesday as a cyclone rivalling Hurricane Katrina bore down on tourism towns and rural communities, with officials saying it could even threaten areas deep inland that were ruined by floods last month.

The S&P 500 index surpassed the 1300-point level twice today, the first time the index reached that plateau since August, 2008, as U.S. stocks finished slightly up today on mixed earnings reports.

Australia's government is reportedly considering a taxpayer levy to help pay for massive flood rebuilding, while preserving the budget's path back to surplus in 2012-13, as one major bank warned on Tuesday the damage bill could reach A$20 billion.

China's Sichuan Hongda Co. Ltd. will invest $3 billion in a coal-fired power plant and two iron ore mines in Tanzania, the state-run National Development Corporation (NDC) said on Tuesday.

Australia's third-largest city started cleaning up stinking mud and debris on Friday after some of the country's worst floods on record, but in a sign of the task ahead, it could take six months to pump flood waters out of Queensland's coal mines.

Tata Steel, the world's seventh-largest steel maker, said on Friday that it would hold on to its shares in Australian miner Riversdale, calling it a strategic stake.

Coal freight lines could start reopening as early as Thursday in Australia's flooded Queensland coalfields as waters recede, rail officials said, prompting predictions of a faster-than-expected start to a recovery in exports.

The devastating floods in Queensland Australia has driven up the prices of certain commodities, including coal, wheat and sugar. With warnings that the flood may not recede for weeks, the longer-term impact on commodity prices becomes a great concern.