VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Fortescue Metals reported a 4% decline in its first six-month net profit owing mainly to the fall in commodity prices. The company has declared an interim dividend of A$0.03 (fully franked).

Shares of BHP Billiton, a mining and petroleum firm in Melbourne, started chasing oil prices very closely as they entered into the horrible downturn period in the oil industry. Analysts expect the miner to rally by nearly 50% in the coming months.

Freeport-McMoRan said that it has planned to trim up to $10 billion debt through earnings from joint venture transactions and asset sales. The mining group also reported a loss of $4.1 billion for the fourth quarter.

BHP Billiton said on Tuesday it would slash its iron ore production cost further and cut spending to better withstand a downturn in commodity prices that is testing even mining industry heavyweights.

BHP Billiton's shareholders are expected to approve the biggest ever spin-off in the mining industry on Wednesday, seeking to wring more value out of a string of long-neglected aluminum, manganese, silver and nickel assets.

Australia's Fortescue Metals Group Ltd will change its roster to increase the time workers spend at mines, as the world's fourth largest iron ore producer rushes to reduce costs in the face of plunging prices for the steelmaking ingredient.

BHP Billiton has put far less debt than expected into its $13 billion South32 spin-off, positioning the company formed from its unloved assets to weather tough markets and still pay a dividend.

Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are amassing vast copper holdings in a push to capture a greater chunk of the $140 billion world market, apparently aiming to squeeze out high-cost producers just as they did in the global iron ore business.

The U.S. Congress has cleared the way for global miners Rio Tinto (RIO.L) (RIO.AX) and BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) (BLT.L) to swap land with the government, which will allow them to build a long-delayed $6 billion copper mine in Arizona.

More than a year ago, U.S. regulators quietly gave a small company permission to export lightly processed oil known as condensate - a previously unreported ruling that could further strengthen the hand of big energy companies pushing hard to chip away at a 40-year-old ban on domestic crude exports.

Rio Tinto (RIO.AX) rejected a merger approach from smaller rival Glencore Plc (GLEN.L) to create a $160 billion mining and trading giant in August just as the price of its most profitable product, iron ore, hit a five-year low.

Japanese aluminum buyers will mostly pay record high premiums of $420 per tonne over London Metal Exchange (LME) prices for October-December shipments, up 3-5 percent from the prior quarter, five sources directly involved in the talks said.

Two Japanese aluminum buyers have agreed to pay a producer a record premium of $420 per tonne for metal to be shipped in the October-December quarter, two sources directly involved in the quarterly pricing talks said on Friday.

Commodities trader and miner Glencore (GLEN.L) and Chinese nickel producer Jinchuan Group are the frontrunners to buy BHP Billiton's (BHP.AX)(BLT.L) Australian Nickel West division, two sources close to the situation said.

Credit Suisse said Rio Tinto and Anglo American could become BHP Billiton's potential partners for its potash mining project in Canada.