Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with word mining. 2 news.

UK Coal Plc, Britain's largest supplier of the fuel, advanced the most in more than seven years in London trading after it received an approach for its mining and power generation assets. Austria's Meinl International Power Ltd asked for a meeting with UK Coal or its advisers next year, the Sunday Times said, citing a letter Meinl sent to the mining company. Discussions aren't expected, Doncaster, England-based UK Coal said yesterday in a statement distributed by the Regulatory News Service, according to Bloomberg News. It didn't identify who made the approach. The shares jumped as much as 23 percent. "There's a lot of value to be had from the mining business and I'm not certain an offer would reflect that potential," Charles Kernot, an analyst at Seymour Pierce in London, said in an interview. "UK Coal has looked into splitting the property and mining businesses and concluded that it's not in the best interests of shareholders." Coal prices have risen to

Times have never been better for the mining industry. Driven by insatiable demand from an industrialising China, the industry is awash in unprecedented billions. Yet the flip side of the boom is that every nook and cranny of the infrastructure, after years of under-investment, is groaning under the strain of the round-the-clock race to dig up everything from iron ore to coal to gold and diamonds destined for ports around the world.