As a way to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the Titanic's sinking, mining magnate Clive Palmer announced that he is building a replica of the Titanic as a tourist cruise ship. The Titanic 2 first voyage is scheduled for late 2016.

During the same press conference, he has expressed interest in standing for Queensland's Liberal National Party (LNP), for the electoral division of Lilley's seat (Queensland), currently hold by Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Wayne Swan.

M. Palmer is also supporting and funding the opposition leader Tony Abbott's campaign against present Prime Minister Gillard with the clear ambition of repealing the mining tax that recently passes Parliament thanks to Swan's and Gillard's hard work and support.

May I suggest to M. Palmer to rename its ship the RMS Taxtanic?

Here comes the 2012 ranking of countries for mining investment, by the Behre Dolbear Group Inc. (Behre Dolbear) First published in 1999, the risk assessment of mining countries compiled by Behre Dolbear is acknowledged to be one of the most reliable in the industry. An interesting part of the document discusses tax regime impact in mining country attractiveness for foreign direct investment. Where the effective tax rate reach 50%, Behre Dolbear considers mining projects to be hardly economically viable (at least during periods of normal commodity pricing). The report also underlined the importance for a mining country to get a stable and predictable tax regime.

New Delhi recently approved a new ad valorem royalty for coal and lignite, updating the former regime that was in application since 2007.

This reform results from the mineral-rich Indian provinces long lasted lobbying, complaining about the insufficient level of compensation received for their non-renewable resources extraction.

A flat 14 per cent of the pithead price will affect the coal industry (6% for the lignite) increasing the province revenue by 17% at USD 1,35 billion, versus USD 1,15 billion based on the previous regime.

My son recently came to me with that question. The answer is tougher than ones thought.

A quarry is an industrial site where building materials or non metallic resources are extracted and processed. "Quarry" comes from the latin word "quadrus", meaning "square", and being a short way to talk about "quadrus lapis": "square stone". Quarry was therefore referring to a place where stones can be sourced and squared for construction purpose.

For quarrying, The Dictionary of Mining, Mineral and Related Terms, gives the following definition: "The surface exploitation of stone or mineral deposits from the Earth's crust."

In a quarry the resource stone is obtained by digging, cutting, or blasting. You may have read or heard the expression "non metallic mines". This expression usually refers to (very large) quarries where blasting operation are conducted (Bauxite mines, for example)

As for a mine, a quarry may be operated in surface or underground.

Quarries can be classified into four major categories which relate to four different types of resources: dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand and gravel quarries.

Each type of quarry has its own specifics, both in terms of extraction techniques and economics.