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.

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.

A poll reveals a striking generation gap in attitudes to mining.