Bathurst Resources, which has cut jobs and delayed the start to its Denniston mine, may raise up to $6.87m in a discounted share placement.

Many areas too remote or dangerous for humans could be opened for exploration.

A company wanting to mine ironsands from the seafloor says the plan will mean $150m extra spent in the area each year.

Victoria police are hunting an arsonist who set fire to an open-cut coal mine that has cloaked a nearby town in noxious smog.

A controversial bid to mine an area of seabed off the North Island's west coast has met a backlash, with only a handful of several thousand submissions in support of the plan.

A New Zealander has died in an underground rockfall accident at an Australian mine.

Prime Minister John Key has defended his Government's $30 million payout to the owners of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter after the Greens and Labour said parent company Rio Tinto's US$3.7 billion profit showed the payment was unjustified.

Profits are up 10pc at world mining giant Rio Tinto - in a year where NZ taxpayers paid the company $30m to keep the Tiwai Pt smelter open.

Ngapuhi working in Australia's mines are being told they won't be welcome if they come home to carry out controversial mineral exploration in Northland.

OceanaGold plans to scale back its operations and is expected to axe more than 100 jobs at the Macraes goldfield in Otago in response to a falling gold price.

The size of Australia's iron ore export earnings continues to soar despite concerns about an end of the mining boom, a new report says.

Australia's largest gold miner is facing a class action from shareholders over its massive financial writedown.

The Australian budget bottom line is looking bleak, and a weaker economy isn't going to help the situation.

Officials in New Zealand's leading oil and gas region are rejecting claims that cows are being allowed to graze on land polluted by waste from mining and fracking operations.

Wellington Zoo is making a home for four Tasmanian Devils which are due to arrive there this week.