Matt Mckenzie

Rio Tinto has hit back at accusations by Nationals WA leader Brendon Grylls that large miners had failed to live up to their contractual obligations in state agreements with the government, after he stepped up his campaign to increase taxes on iron ore production today.

Perth mining hopeful Acacia Coal will buy a 74 per cent interest in a South African metallurgical coal project from a subsidiary of Rio Tinto and undertake a $2 million capital raising, it announced today.

The head contractor on the Roy Hill project has won two out of five determinations in the latest instalment in its legal dispute with sub-contractor Duro Felguera today, but Samsung C&T was still told to pay Duro $12 million out of more than $60 million that had been sought.

The state owned Gold Corporation, which trades as The Perth Mint, has doubled pre-tax profit to $41 million, with a big increase in sales of minted coins among the factors assisting the result.

A $400 million lithium hydroxide plant to supply the battery industry will bring highly skilled technical and scientific jobs with it, Premier Colin Barnett said at the facility’s groundbreaking ceremony today in Kwinana.

Working on trading relationships has benefited two nominees in the upcoming state exporter awards, while recently negotiated trade agreements will also boost business.

Western Australian gas producers shipped 2.2 million tonnes of LNG in September as quarterly exports were up 45 per cent nationally on last year, according to consultancy EnergyQuest.

South Australian mining junior Flinders Mines has announced a capital raising of $5 million, with the company to put the cash towards a loan repayment and tenement expenditure commitments at its Pilbara iron ore project.

The state’s five port authorities posted substantially lower net incomes in the 2016 financial year but were still in the black by $223 million, according to annual reports tabled in parliament in recent weeks.

The Business News index of 30 Western Australian companies outperformed the ASX200 in the September quarter on the back of stronger showings from a handful of miners and contractors.

Subiaco-based minerals explorer Avanco Resources has signed an earn-in agreement with Canadian Jaguar Mining for the Gurupi gold project in Brazil, while Spitfire Materials has acquired 100 per cent of a gold project in Western Australia.

Continuing investment in major resources projects nearing completion contributed $35 billion to the Western Australian economy in 2015-16, around two thirds of Australia’s resources investment spend in the year, according to the Department of Mines and Petroleum.

Western Australia is emerging as a market leader in the uptake of microgrid technology in electricity markets, with recent announcements by Horizon Power and Carnegie Wave Energy part of broader moves across the sector.

More than half of the electricity used in the Pilbara town of Onslow will be sourced from renewable sources by 2020, with the state government today announcing it will be home to Australia’s largest distributed generation microgrid.

South32 Australian chief operating officer Ricus Grimbeek has pointed to the company's share price performance against BHP Billiton to show that its assets shouldn't be considered poorer quality, speaking at a WA Mining Club lunch today.

Falling private sector investment in heavy industry and electricity generation were major contributors to a big drop-off in total construction and engineering work in Western Australia in June, down 21.7 per cent quarter on quarter to $6.75 billion.

Perth-based renewable energy technology developer Carnegie Wave Energy has won a $2.5 million grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency for a wave and solar power microgrid it aims to develop on Garden Island.

Echo Resources and Metaliko Resources are expected to announce a tie-up this week, after the two ASX-listed companies with assets in the eastern Goldfields region announced trading halts today.

Two reports last week took quite different approaches to welfare reform, but both were a move away from the approach undertaken in the 2014 budget.

The state’s budget position for the 2016 financial year has come in nearly $700 million better than was initially forecast when it was released in May last year, but still in the red to the tune of $2 billion, with revenue $915 million down on the previous year.

Gold producer Resolute Mining looks likely to recommence open-pit mining at its Ravenswood underground operation after a feasibility study released today suggested it would extend mine life to 2029.

Australia has a greater reliance on its economic and financial relationship with the US than at any time since World War II, former Labor leader Kim Beazley told a Business News breakfast, but a Donald Trump presidency could mean a big shift in the superpower’s relationship with its allies.

SPECIAL REPORT: A record high Australian dollar price in June has provided a tailwind for the state’s gold sector, and 2017 is looking to be a similarly positive year.

Colin Barnett has seen off an attempted spill motion at today’s party room meeting by 31 votes to 15, emerging with what he claimed was a united Liberal team after a ‘therapeutic’ exercise.

SPECIAL REPORT: Some of Western Australia’s biggest gold miners plan to boost their exploration spend in the coming year, with Saracen Mineral Holdings and Northern Star Resources among those committed to putting increasing amounts ‘into the ground’.

GrainCorp-backed Australian Grains Champion has written to Western Australian growers withdrawing a bid launched in February to corporatise and list cooperative grain handler CBH Group.

SPECIAL REPORT: Innovation is a key plank of Resolute Mining’s strategy to keep costs down and extend mine life, managing director John Welborn told Business News, while acknowledging the pressures such a plan placed on capital and human resources.

Treasurer Scott Morrison has made changes to the federal government’s proposed superannuation reforms after months of internal party pressure, with a proposed $500,000 lifetime non-concessional contribution cap replaced by a reduction of the existing annual cap.

The state government has acted on a key recommendation from a parliamentary inquiry into fracking delivered late last year, appointing a working group to review laws around land access.

Shipbuilder Austal has successfully completed an export contract to Azerbaijan, delivering a 70-metre catamaran constructed at its Henderson yard, the same facility that will be building a series of vessels for the federal government in two naval contracts.

The resources sector continues to think about solutions to the growing burden of industrial relations laws.

Grain producers are set for a bumper crop in Western Australia going into harvest, with the latest production forecasts from the federal government estimating production will reach 17.1 million tonnes, an increase of 17 per cent on last year.