Miners were among the first workers to organise into trade unions from the middle of the 1700s, battling a lack of legal recognition and resistance from the mine owners.
What are the issues facing rural and regional Australia? The challenges are many and varied – and only some have made the national political agenda – but these areas deserve better than neglect.
Rehabilitating old mines is a crucial responsibility for the industry. But many Australian mine sites have been simply left alone or left for the taxpayer to fix.
Informal mining and invasive illegal mining have the same illegal status under law in South Africa. But is all informal mining the same? And should it all be deemed illegal?
The outlook is not good for those who may lose their jobs as a result of mining company Arrium going into voluntary administration, according to the latest OECD report.
Big new investors such as the Asian Infrastructure Development Bank are key players in a worldwide infrastructure, and that could be bad news for the environment.
Growing population, growing demand for food, climate change: Australia’s rural lands are facing a number of pressures. So how can we sustainably use them in the future?
Zimbabwe has said it will take over all diamond mining operations in the country. But what is needed to maximise revenues isn’t state ownership, but improvements in existing regulatory practices.
Do fossil fuels need saving from efforts to combat climate change? The Australian government seems to think so, but that sort of thinking is out of date.
The decline in commodity prices means African countries must work that much harder to encourage both local and foreign smaller and junior mining companies.
Parents in three Australian states are being given misleading advice about the dangers of lead to babies and small children – including failing to warn pregnant women about miscarriage risks.