Wugin, don't be afraid of coal at all for the next 5-10 years - our main local competitor is Indonesia. All the horseradish that is for grazing in the news about dirty technology and green house gases.
Yes they are bad, yes they are nasty, yes they might end the world - but not tomorrow. Major infrastructure takes 15-20 years to become cash flow +ve and the world won't throw away coal fired anything until at least then - so 10 years is a safe bet to establish carbon capture technology.
2009 World Energy Outlook report (paid subscriber) forecasts coal to grow strongest out of all the energies, NatGas next - coal compounding 1.9% annual growth gloablly (go figure!).
Both of which there is proven plenty of around the world. Nat Gas being the most environmentally friendly of all, but lessor developed.
So put MEL, MEO, EDE, LNG, BOW, KAR into your mix for Nat Gas. These are juniors on the scheme of things, some might crack into the mid tier in the next few years. NatGas will accelerate in consumption over other technologies as diesel burners are easily converted to NG (transport).
Put TRF into the mix for iron ore, HNR for nickel. Put OEX and MPO for oil producers. Some prefer to stay explorers - not all aspire to be producers. Look at their business model for more understanding.
Industrials are a bit harder.
Without doubt, we are watching in real time the birth of some companies comparable to the early days of WPL, NCM, BHP etc ... and yet some of these juniors mentioned will be take over targets to the majors.
Depends how long you are willing to wait but long term is most certainly assured for some if history is any example to go by.
