On Thursday, coal giant Alpha Natural Resources announced its plans to sack 1,100 coal mine workers. The lay-offs will take place at 11 West Virginia surface mines and operations related to it by mid-October.

With the South Africa's antitrust regulator Competition Tribunal giving a conditional approval to the Glencore International's $36 billion acquisition of coal producer Xstrata on Tuesday, the sole outstanding requirement for the merger transaction to go ahead is an approval from China.

In a human rights complaint filed with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, a Chinese miner - named Huizhi Li - has said that the protests which the United Steelworkers Union has launched over the foreign employees' issue have led to a situation where Chinese workers will be seen with contempt.

Though, the mining industry in South Africa was recently rocked by a number of strikes. A recent report has shed light that many more strikes could be seen in the first quarter of the coming year for the reason that thousands of jobs are to be shed.

Heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc. has announced its plans to move some of its production from Japan to North America, where it will open a new manufacturing facility.

Caterpillar, the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, said it decided to move production to bring it closer to its customers.