Mario Sepulveda is weeping. Amid the clatter and din of the building site where he works in the Chilean capital of Santiago, Sepulveda's voice can hardly be heard as it comes in great heaving sobs.

Diamonds are so hard to find that explorers have pretty much given up trying.

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

Miner and steelmaker Arrium is asking its shareholders to cough up more than A$750 million ($829 million) to pay down its debt pile in the face of sliding iron ore prices.

Twenty freelance miners, including 16-year-old Leber Gonzales above, have been rescued after being trapped deep underground for more than 24 hours.

Wildlife biologist Nick Mooney says open cut mines in Tasmania could prove to be safe havens for endangered Tasmanian devils.

Tugboat crews are threatening to disrupt shipments from the world's biggest iron ore port as they negotiate for increased wages.

As prices for iron ore are projected to slip, cattle is becoming more attractive to Australian mining companies.

Taranaki oil and gas explorer Tag Oil, of Canada, is expanding into the New Zealand minerals sector through its 49 per cent ownership of a listed Canadian explorer.

Tag Oil of Canada has been awarded five mineral exploration permits to hunt for platinum in the South Island.

An overwhelming number of experienced Stockton mineworkers have volunteered for redundancy because they're fed up, says a worker.

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.

Gina Rinehart's son John Hancock called his youngest sister "an oxygen thief".

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.

Editorial: During the passage of legislation establishing a new regime for activity in NZ's exclusive economic zone, environmentalists fretted the Govt had got the balance wrong.

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.

The fate of a $70 million bid to mine ironsands off the ocean floor in the southern Taranaki Bight will be known this Wednesday.

Almost 140 jobs are to be axed at Solid Energy's Stockton mine, the company announced today.

The Turkish prime minister's aide Yusef Yerkel has allegedly been given sick leave after being diagnosed with soft tissue trauma in his right leg - the same leg used to kick a protester.

A shocking image has emerged showing the moment an adviser to the Turkish PM kicked a protester being held after the coal mine disaster that killed 282.

There's so much cheap iron ore flooding into China that rates for the ships that carry it are forecast to jump almost 70 per cent by June.

TransTasman Resources has been granted a mining permit to extract titano-magnetite sands some 22 to 36 km off the coast of Patea, in the Exclusive Economic Zone.