News

Two former Bunbury cafe operators have been fined more than $150,000 after deliberately underpaying a number of their employees over a 15-month period, starting in 2013.

The materials and energy sectors are under pressure in early trade as the Australian share market continues to reverse its climb past 6,000 points.

Former Xstrata boss in race to chair RioThe Fin

Oil prices have fallen for a third day in a row as forecasts for rising US crude output and a gloomier outlook for global demand growth in a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Gold rose slightly on Tuesday, as a weakening US dollar and sluggish stock market helped pull the precious metal off a one-week low hit in early trade, while traders also said uncertainty over the fate of a US tax cut prompted some safe-haven buying of gold.

The Australian dollar is steady against the US dollar after an up and down night of trade that saw the currency peak near 76.50 US cents.

Embattled sandalwood producer Quintis has been thrown a lifeline after entering into a high-interest debt facility for up to $US20 million ($15 million), while also announcing a net loss after tax of $416.8 million for the year to June 2017.

The share market has taken its sharpest fall in seven weeks as profit-takers moved in, selling off across the market and dropping the benchmark index back under 6,000 points.

Shares in Subiaco-based Lustrum Minerals are due to start trading tomorrow after the company completed a $5 million initial public offering to allow the company to fund development of its coal projects in Queensland.

Western Australia’s three largest dairy producers are now under foreign ownership, after Brownes was sold to a consortium of investors that includes Chinese dairy operator Shanghai Ground Food.

Fastbrick Robotics has announced it will build a second of its commercial prototype Hadrian X bricklaying robots in an effort to improve testing procedures.

OZ Minerals has progressed its joint venture with local explorer Cassini Resources at the West Musgrave nickel-copper project after positive results in a further scoping study.

A weak start to trading has sent the share market's leading index back below the 6,000-point level it broke last week.

Even those with only a passing interest in the resources sector would recognise there’s something unusual about an iron ore miner talking up a natural gas project and an oilman talking it down.

Fortescue Metals Group has terminated its agreement with TransAlta Corporation to purchase power from the recently completed South Headland power station after the miner raised performance concerns in August.

Mustang Resources managing director Christiaan Jordaan has resigned two weeks after an auction for its rubies in Mauritius brought disappointing results.

Altura Mining has taken the next step to double capacity at its Pilgangoora project, approving a definitive feasibility study for expansion to 440,000 tonnes per annum of lithium concentrate, while confirming shipments from stage one of the mine are due in the second quarter of 2018.

The Australian share market has closed slightly lower, dragged back by two of the big four banks - ANZ and Westpac - trading ex-dividend.

Mining and civil contractor MACA has announced a hit to earnings due to underperforming contracts in its Interquip and Victorian infrastructure divisions.

Shares in Great Boulder Resources have tripled in value today after the company announced encouraging drilling results at Mt Venn, within its Yamarna copper-nickel-cobalt project east of Laverton.

Cement and masonry supplier Adelaide Brighton, which owns Cockburn Cement, is investigating some transactions that may have hidden customer underpayments for supplied products.

The Australian share market has opened lower as two of the four big banks trade ex-dividend, and following a largely negative lead from Wall Street.

 WA pushes GST reform despite cost

Former Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh has taken the reins as Royal Flying Doctor Service chair.

Australian shares finished lower on Friday after losses concentrated in mining and energy stocks ended the market's run of recent gains.

Pilbara Minerals has struck an agreement to work on the possible development of a lithium processing facility in joint venture with South Korean companies Polaris Shipping and LG Chem.

US media giant CBS's $41 million takeover of the Ten Network can proceed, with a court approving the transfer of all shares in the local network to the American company.

The board and management of gambling giant Tabcorp should have done more to ensure that the company was meeting its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing obligation, a Federal Court

The Western Australian cooperative and mutuals sector continues to perform strongly on the national stage, with WA accounting for four of the country’s top 10 co-ops and mutual enterprises, a new report has found.

The local share market has opened lower following negative sentiment in the US overnight where falls in technology stocks weighed on Wall Street.

Staged build for wind farm

Osborne Park-based Decmil Group has won a $75 million contract with BHP Billiton to upgrade and expand accommodation for the miner's existing operations and its planned South Flank iron ore project near Newman.