Tim Treadgold

The US is leading the charge to cheaper oil and gas, and its industries are taming the internet to turn a buck in the digital world.

For the best ringside seat at a bruising encounter don’t buy a ticket to a boxing event, sign up for an iron ore forecasting conference which will, for the first time since prices crashed, put the big boys of the industry on the same podium as the small producers.

The South West may be the scene of a political and environmental battle over bauxite mining not seen for 30 years.

Psst … looking for a bargain? Here’s a way to buy $1 for less than $1 by acquiring a fistful of shares in Mt Gibson Iron.

China’s maturing economy, not a conspiracy of collusion, is behind the actions of WA’s two biggest iron ore miners.

Money is moving out of iron ore but where it goes next is the more interesting question, because it seems that some investors are developing a taste for agriculture – a shift that might prove to be a case of leaving the frying pan to land in the fire.

Seven Group Holding’s performance may be more accurate barometer of the state’s finances than treasury calculations.

The big get bigger and the small get crushed.

Against expectations, the nickel sector appears set for a rebound in 2015.

Verbal and financial volatility is the best way to describe what’s happening in Western Australia today.

A recent study of world LNG supply and demand has some positive news for WA.

Karl Simich and Mark Bennett are justifiably annoyed at having the companies they run added to an investment blacklist; but behind their frustration there is an enormously serious issue for every member of a superannuation fund – and that, in theory, is every working and recently retired Australian.

The big commodities exporter has stolen a march on Australia with a China deal to use giant ships at cheaper rates.

If Western Australia’s small iron ore miners thought all the bad news about falling prices was in the open, they got a shock this week when the two biggest producers, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, launched a war of words, complete with threats of fresh expansion programs.

It is always hard to pin a stock market correction on a single event, but when investors look back at what’s happened over the past few weeks as the stock market has dropped by 5 per cent (half way to an official correction) they will focus on the float of a single company, the giant Chinese trading house, Alibaba.

The next move in US interest rates will be up, which will have an effect worldwide – including on Australia’s residential property market.

China’s new coal-quality rules have ruffled feathers in the Australian coal industry.

Investor interest in base metals stocks is rising, as iron ore process continue to slide south.

Would you wear wearable technology, such as the soon-to-be released Apple Watch?

Uranium mining is a challenging business at the best of times, but the current abundance of oil and gas is making life even harder for companies such as Paladin Energy.

FEATURE: Les Davis and Bill Beament are two of the Western Australian gold industry’s most influential people, but the person who has infinitely more power over gold in WA than the chief executives of Silver Lake and Northern Star doesn’t live here.

FEATURE: Star in name, star in nature; it has been a rapid rise for one of the state’s major players.

FEATURE: If the adage ‘three strikes and you’re out’ applied to the gold mining industry, the curtains would already have been drawn; but some determined locals are fighting on.

If Scotland votes for independence exactly two weeks from today, expect a revival in another part of the world that has had the occasional secession debate – Western Australia.

The premier and treasurer have some tough choices to make if they’re to salvage the state’s economic fortunes.

Once the clear leader of Australia’s aviation industry, Qantas has provided a dramatic demonstration of what happens when management ignores the views of its customers.

FEATURE: Having gained notoriety in the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire, the phrase ‘show me the money’ will be heard often, and loudly, in business in Western Australia in coming years as capital inflows become capital outflows and funds become harder-than-ever to raise.

The political standoff in Canberra will put a spotlight on the value of the $A, and the uncompetitive nature of large segments of Australia’s economy.

FEATURE: Subdued iron ore and gold prices over the longer term could signal a lift in exploration for base metals.

FEATURE: A stubbornly high dollar, falling prices and high operating costs are combining to exert real pressure on smaller players in the iron ore sector.

Retail investors in Western Australia love their Wesfarmers and Woodside shares. Professional investors are not so sure, and neither is the governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Glenn Stevens.

From mining to retail and everything in between, it seems bigger is better – particularly when the going gets tough.