China accounts for most rare earths production and has alarmed global manufactures by reducing exports of the ores as it tries to develop its own producers of lightweight magnets and other high-tech goods that use the metals.
This year’s production quota will be 93,800 tons, the Ministry of Land and Resources said on its website. That [...]

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Treasury says Australia’s export earnings are likely to be about $2 billion lower in 2010/11 as a result of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last month.
It expects one-third of this will be recouped in future quarters as export volumes rebound.
“The tragic events in Japan - together with the impact of floods and Cyclone Yasi [...]

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Rising petrol costs not only have an effect on consumers and flow-on effects into the retail sector, but also for businesses, particularly manufacturers, as the price of diesel also increases.
Political tension in the Middle East and the recent tsunami in Japan are largely driving up current prices. Countries such as Libya, one of the world’s [...]

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Xie Zhenhua is in Canberra this week for talks with his Australian counterpart, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet.
China is set to run carbon trading pilot programs in a number of provinces and cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin.
“After our drafting and assessment of these plans we will gradually implement these plans in these places,” Xie [...]

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The coalition announced in February it will merge the distribution arms of Energy Australia, Integral Energy and Country Energy into two entities.
It’s doing so to pay for electricity rebates for 1.4 million households although the move will result in job losses, including one CEO and one board.
The financial implications of the plan were unveiled in [...]

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Treasurer Wayne Swan on Thursday said the government had accepted all 98 recommendations of a review into its controversial minerals resource rent tax (MRRT).
Swan said the reforms would boost national savings, cut company taxation, and provide investment in infrastructure, particularly in the mineral-rich states of Western Australia and Queensland.
“In the coming months, we will release [...]

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This will be some relief to Australian motorists who have already seen their monthly petrol bill increase by some $25 in the past four months.
But Treasurer Wayne Swan says the risk of rising energy prices in the wake of the disasters in Japan, and political tensions in the Middle East and north Africa, does risk [...]

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The ABC’s Lateline has reported that research from the policy think tank the Grattan Institute says more than $12 billion of programs from state and federal governments have largely failed.
The report says less than 20 per cent of $7 billion of Commonwealth grants have been spent.
This includes the federal government’s $3.5 billion clean coal and [...]

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Its 25-year-plan to shut all the state’s coal-fired generators would keep 63 million tonnes of carbon dioxide out of thee atmosphere, the Greens say.
Announcing the party’s energy policy on Wednesday, Greens MP John Kaye said coal was a “dead end” for NSW.
“Coal-fired power stations employ about 1000 people, the renewable energy industry will have about [...]

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LNG, the company set to produce the first liquefied natural gas out of Gladstone, is on the verge of signing a deal to supply gas from 2012.
LNG announced in February it had signed a heads of agreement with its biggest shareholder, Norwegian company Golar LNG, to supply all of its first production train, which has [...]

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