Mining boss admits coal investment bubble has burst

A leading mining figure has declared the coal investment bubble has already burst through a combination of higher production costs, low prices and an aggressive anti-mining campaign scaring off new funding, according to The Australian.

Queensland Resources Council chief Michael Roche told a mining conference in Berlin yesterday that while the industry had been bullish about its future two years ago, there had been little activity in the past 18 months.

He said that early last year, the Bureau of Resource and Energy Economics had reported 21 advanced coal projects in NSW and Queensland and 73 less-advanced projects, but by April this year, the bureau was reporting that there had been only one new committed coal project over the previous 12 months.

NSW braces for worst of fires

NSW has been told to be selective in its use of emergency powers to force evacuations as it prepares for what could be a crucial day in the bushfire emergency in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Professor John Handmer, director of the Centre for Risk and Community Safety at RMIT University and a key adviser in the aftermath of the Victorian 2009 bushfires, said even though NSW declared a state of emergency this week, the powers should be used with caution.

“People sometimes have legitimate reasons for wanting to stay and protect their homes and livelihoods,” Handmer said.

All schools in the Blue Mountains will be closed today, nursing home patients are being evacuated and the largest firefighting force in NSW history will be mobilised.

Temperatures are forecast to rise above 35C, with wind gusts of up to 100km/h from the north a risk of driving the fires towards population centres.

The NSW Rural Fire Service said conditions would be “about as bad as it gets” and there was “real potential for more loss of homes and loss of life”

Qantas wins punctuality contest, but miners switch flights

Virgin Australia’s chief executive John Borghetti says the downturn in the resources sector has proven positive for Virgin Australia Holdings because miners looking to cut costs are signing up as new corporate customers, according to The Australian Financial Review.

“Everybody says, ‘gee, the resources industry is suffering in Australia and it must be really hard for you’,” he said at an event held by the Australian School of Business in Sydney on Monday.

“And I say, ‘no, it is fantastic for us . . . because we didn’t [previously] have any of the resources business’.”

Rio Tinto, one of the biggest travel accounts in the country, has used Virgin for a proportion of its fly-in/fly-out and other travel since October 2011.