The power generating companies and coal traders in the country are seeking clarification on the move by Coal India Limited (CIL) involving withdrawal of the price rise in coal as well as on how the gross calorific value (GCV) mechanism would prove to be cost neutral to them.

Coal India had proposed a new pricing mechanism that involved linking the prices to the quality of coal. According to estimates, the new pricing policy brought in by the coal monopoly would have resulted in the coal to be become dearer by 12-15 % for the state-owned and private power utilities in the country.

The Obulapuram Mining Company Pvt Ltd (OMC), which is owned by former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhana Reddy has reportedly earned over Rs 4,310 crore through sales of iron ore that was illegally mined.

The company has sold illegally mined iron ore in the domestic market as well as exports to other countries, according to a charge sheet by the CBI. With earnings in crores of rupees, Gali recently purchased a helicopter for his executive. The Bel helicopter has now been seized by CBI and is its custody.

According to estimates, the new pricing policy brought in by the coal monopoly, Coal India (CIL) will result in the coal to be become dearer by 12-15 % for the state-owned and private power utilities in the country.

Thermal power plants use different categories of coal are expected to feel the pinch with the new pricing policy as CIL increases the categories of coal it offers. The increase in coal prices is expected to result in an increase in power generation cost by at least 40 paisa per unit.

Coal India (CIL) might be planning to set up a subsidiary for the purpose of acquiring coal assets South Africa through forming a joint venture with a local partner.

The Indian public sector unit was approached by the government of the South African state of Limpopo to form a joint venture (JV) with one of its public sector firms for acquiring coal mines in the province. Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa.

A senior official of a mining firm in Goa has said that foreign funding might be behind those opposing the iron ore mining industry Goa.

P K Mukherjee, the Managing Director of Sesa Goa Limited said that the company does not know if foreign funding is behind the activism but warned that such aspects are harmful in the long run.

Afghanistan's mining minister has announced that Indian and Chinese bidders are front runners for mining iron ore and oil deposits in the country, ahead of western firms who showed hesitations in investing in the war-torn nation.

Reliance Industries is known as the largest Indian company by market capitalization but soon the company can lose its number one position as PSU major Coal India Limited is all set to dethrone the company’s present capitalization figures.

Market capitalization or M-cap is basically the total market value of all of a company's outstanding shares, which is calculated by multiplying a company's shares outstanding with the current market price per share.

In context to same, the latest data has revealed that Coal India’s M-Cap is Rs. 2,47,033 crore, which is less by only 2 per cent from M-Cap of RIL of Rs. 2,52,282.84 crore. Since 2007, Reliance Industries has been serving as India's most valued companies in the list.

Recently, it has been announced by the Supreme Court that from now onwards, no more iron ore mining would be done in Bellary district. Along with this, in order to meet the domestic requirement of iron and steel industries, the court has also allowed the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) to initiate with their mining operations. With this decision of court, there have been prevailing mixed feelings in the area.

New Delhi, July 4 : Mineral production declined 14.52 percent in April compared to the preceding month due to sharp drop in the output of coal, bauxite and copper, official data showed Monday.

Coal production slumped 32.81 percent at 407 lakh tonnes and production of bauxite fell 18.23 percent at 1,041 thousand tonnes in the reporting month, according to data released by the ministry of mines.

Production of lead concentrate fell 18.34 percent, magnestie 12.87 percent, copper concentrate 8.56 percent and zinc concentrate 7.86 percent.

It has been revealed in a recent development that two coal mines from Australia are going to be bought by the energy giant, GVK Power. These shall require humongous funds and the firm is busy raising debts for the same. ICICI bank is going to be one of the major lenders for the firm. They are going to pay them as much as 1.2 billion for the same.

"The loans will carry an interest of 10% and will be completed in the next 2 weeks. The funding will be raised via a special purpose vehicle that will be registered overseas”, said a person involved in these major transactions.

On Monday the world’s largest coal miner, Coal India has stated that it is expecting to achieve an annual return of 62 billion rupees or $1.4 billion in the coming fiscal year which starts from the month of April.

However, the company says that it is possible after the review of the coal prices and the news has surged the stock price of the company up by over 11 percent today.

The company has said that the inflation will bring in additional revenue of 6.5 billion rupees in this fiscal year. Moreover, the board has approved revision of the coal prices which is effective from Sunday.

Union Mines Ministry suspended Abhay Kumar Srivastava, Chairman and CMD, National Aluminum Company Limited (NALCO). In this high profile bribery case, other names are yet to come before CBI. Srivastava is in custody of Central Bureau of Investigation till March, 3.

Mines Ministry said about this suspension in media release "Abhay Kumar Srivastava, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, National Aluminum Company Limited (NALCO) has been put under suspension with immediate effect following investigation/inquiry in a case (CBI regular Case 01/2011 of AC1 Branch) of criminal offence".

After handing a hefty cheque of interim dividend to the coal minister, Coal India Limited is all set ready to increase prices of coal by 15%. This increase will be an average and is an attempt by CIL to match international and domestic prices. A top level executive said about this price rise "We are selling coal at 50 per cent lower than imported price.

On Friday, the Supreme Court (SC) has ordered to have an environmental investigation over the illegal mining in Karnataka. It was suspected that illegal mining work has been carried out in the areas which were considered as forest land. It had also been a reason for the political fight between Governor HR Bhardwaj and the BS Yeddyurappa government.

The court has been requested by the special Bench which included Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices Aftab Alam along with K S Radhakrishnan to have a proper inspection.

The chairman and managing director of National Aluminium Company Ltd (NALCO) Mr. Abhay Kumar Srivastava has been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today. He has been accused of taking bribe and corruption. He was involved in taking bribes in the form of gold bricks.

With him his wife Chandni Srivastava and two assistants were also arrested by the agency.

State owned PSU Coal India Limited paid Rs. 1,989.65 crore as Interim Dividend to the Government of India. This dividend was for the FY 2010-11. CIL is paying dividend at Rs. 3.5 per share. Shri Partha S Bhattcharyya, Chairman Coal India Limited handed the cheque to the Minister of Coal, Government of India, Shri Sriprakash Jaiswal.

CIL managed to post a profit-after-tax of Rs. 9,622.45 crore for the 2009-10. The amount paid to government (Rs. 1989.65 crore) is 90% of the dividend. Rest 10% will be distributed among the shareholders of the company. In FY

The new oil Minister, Mr. S Jaipal Reddy has said on Thursday that, the reply to the approval of Vedanta Resources' USD 9.6 billion acquisition of Cairn India will be given very soon.

Reddy has said that, the issues concerning Cairn-Vedanta have legal allusions so some of them have been referred to the law ministry for explanation. He has also said this after taking the control of the oil ministry. Earlier Murli Deora was the Union oil minister.

The decision on this deal was hanged for almost six months, however Reddy's response to questions showed that he was well versed with the issues complicated and the decision to be taken.

Sirius Minerals, known for exploring potash, latest finance director Andrew Lindsay has invested £99,000 in the group after his selection.

Lindsay was employed on the similar day that Sirius declared its acquirement of York Potash. Previously, he was finance director of AIM- cited European Nickel.

He has obtained 582,352 shares at a standard share price of 17p. Sirius Minerals is offering him 0.07%.

In an event that took many market watchers by surprise, one of the top global miners, BHP Billiton announced its decision to scrap its $39 billion bid for Canada's Potash Corp.

It is to be mentioned here that it was expected to be the world's biggest deal this year but as the global mine major eventually decided to return cash to its investors with a $4.2 billion share buyback, it made its way to the history books.

In its October 20, 2010 research report KRChoksey has suggested to hold rating on Sesa Goa with an aim of Rs 390.

Sesa Goa has accounted consolidated sales of Rs 907 crore as contrasted to the Rs 534 in the consequent quarter last year. Sales volumes rose up by 25% to 2.0 million tonnes as contrasted to 1.62 million tonnes in Q2FY10. Successively the sales volumes fall down by 62% majorly on account of seasonality.