The price for hard coking coal has plummeted US$45/tonne since peaking at US$310/tonne last month.

The very health and safety changes which the Pike River disaster prompted make re-entering the mine difficult, Prime Minister Bill English says.

A small band of protesters stood outside Fonterra's headquarters in downtown Auckland today to demonstrate against the co-operative's extensive use of coal.

The President Elect Donald Trump bodes well for farms and coal mines, but trade deals will be left in peril.

Phoenix Coal has agreed to pay $46 million cash for Solid Energy's Stockton, Rotowaro and Maramarua mines.

Solid Energy says it remains in discussions over the future of the Spring Creek underground coalmine at Dunollie, and the small Reddale open-cast mine near Reefton.

Solid Energy yesterday said the firm was "still in multiple discussions/negotiations and it would be inappropriate to make any further comment".

Our biggest electricity retailer says lower power, gas and oil prices, along with competition, has hit its annual earnings.

Solid Energy says a decision on whether the Stockton coal mine should be closed is "pending", and it expects to make a decision in the next few months.

As the world tries to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and combat climate change, policymakers have pinned hopes on electric cars.

Sixty-five staff to axed as operator admits there is no chance whatsover of finding a buyer for Waikato mine that's cost about $500,000 a month to keep open.

However, it had a much better 12 months to June 30 than a year earlier, improving EBITA 17 per cent to $91 million.

Solid Energy creditors yesterday voted to retain the company's existing administrators and not to set up a creditors' committee.

Two major factors - falling international coal prices and a $320 million mountain of debt - proved the undoing of state-owned coal company Solid Energy.

Solid Energy acting chairman Andy Coupe admitted it was "unlikely" that any sale, or sales, would cover its outstanding debt.

I say good riddance to this filthy and dangerous industry, writes Sam Judd. Although I do feel for the workers who will lose out on this situation.

A decade-long project to save endangered giant snails from a West Coast coal mine will finish next year.

Coal prices have dropped 33pc to levels that have made most mining companies across the Appalachia region unprofitable.

For nearly a year, it turns out, the Pike River mine could have been made safe to enter.

Indian PM Narendra Modi is pledging $25 billion to unclog India's transportation links, spur power output and build cities.

A train driver was unaware that a car had crashed into the side of his coal train near Greymouth.

Odd couple barely does them justice. One is the planet's most celebrated climate warrior, the other a mining baron who plans to export enough coal to turn Asian skies black.

Stockton mineworkers got the bad news they were expecting today, that more than 180 jobs will go - over a quarter of the workforce - and mine production will fall by 25 per cent.

Australian state governments spent A$17.6 billion on subsidies for mineral and fossil fuel industries over six years, including A$8 billion to help transport coal.

Coal dominated world energy markets last year by supplying the biggest share of demand since 1970, making it the fastest growing fossil fuel, according to an annual review by BP.