A building resembling a prickly cactus is about to sprout from the dusty, dry soil of Qatar to house - appropriately - the Minister for Municipal Affairs and Agriculture.
Designed by Bangkok firm Aesthetics Architects, the dome-like building will be very energy-efficient and feature sun shades to control the heat.
The dome at the foot of the building will house a botanic garden. Unfortunately, as Qatar has one of the highest GDP in the world, construction processes are not likely to be as energy-efficient as the building itself.
The Star Diamond Project is situated 60km east of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, which is the main supply centre for Northern Saskatchewan, encircling the Star Kimberlite area. Star Kimberlite is located at a burned portion of the Fort a La Corne forest.
Star Kimberlite is among the largest diamond bearing kimberlites worldwide, covering 352ha. The Diamond Project and the Fort a La Corne joint venture (FALC-JV, a joint venture of 60% Shore and 40% Newmont, also referred to as ‘Star West’), are located within it.
The Star Diamond Project is a mineral disposition in grounds owned by Canada’s Shore Gold and Fort a La Corne. The project is wholly owned by Shore Gold and is treated as a single entity. Shore Gold’s main business is the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties.
The project area covers 23 mineral dispositions aggregating to 9,280ha. Shore Gold controls 395 claims covering 219,196ha.
Kuwait's tallest building, the 412m Al Hamra Tower, is on track in its schedule to open in 2010.
Designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merill, the tower is being built in Kuwait City by Turner Construction with Ahmadiah Contracting and Trading Company and will be the world's largest sculpted tower once completed.
MSloane Consulting supplies construction equipment, and provides related services anywhere in the world.
According to estimation of the country's leading steel information provider this weekend, China is expected to own rights in more than 100 million tonnes of overseas iron ore assets next year.
The Beijing based Lange Steel Information Service said the estimation has included assets owned by Chinese firms following the purchase of China's Hunan Valin Iron and Steel Group in Australian mining company Fortescue Metals Group.
Hunan Valin purchase in Australia's third largest iron ore producer has been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, but the deal still needs further approvals from the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. The deal if secured would ensure a yearly iron ore supply of 10 million tonnes for Hunan Valin from FMG.
Lange said six Chinese steel producers, including Baosteel, Sinosteel and Hunan Valin have each secured rights in an annual supply of more than 10 million tonnes of overseas iron ore assets. It said another four producers have obtained a combined supply of 12 million tonnes of iron ore from overseas suppliers.
Mr Wang Guoqing a Lange analyst said about 80% of China's overseas iron ore supplies are in Australia which have been obtained through stake purchases, purchases of assets joint ventures and joint development.
China imported 443.56 million tonnes of iron ore in 2008, bringing the country's reliance on imported iron ore to around 50%.
Prospectors will soon have access at their fingertips to a knowledge source to help them tackle the challenge of finding mineral resources before they physically inspect a location for mining.
The AuScope National Virtual Core Library (NVCL) is a research network that will offer users a detailed and high-resolution portrait of the composition and more specifically the mineralogy of the top 2km of the Australian continent.
Core libraries have existed for many years but they have not been used anywhere near this degree. The NVCL, which is part of the AuScope National GeoTransects Programme, has the goal of progressively building a novel high-resolution image bank of earth materials and properties - facilitating world-class geoscience research.
The NVCL will significantly increase the value of existing core libraries by scanning hundreds of thousands of core samples using Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)’s robotic, automated spectroscopic machines, called HyLoggers. It will then publish the detailed mineralogical data derived from that process.
We could see a trend of miner mergers this year as stronger players pick off small miner rivals, looking at a long-term industry upturn that would also strengthen companies in the heavy equipment for sale business as Tricia Wright of Reuters reported
Shares in the sector fell nearly 75% in 2008, and for many small companies stuck with scarce credit, high exploration costs and few products to sell, merging is a route to survival. Equity financing, once the junior miners' main source of funds, is no longer available after risk-averse investors fled the sector entirely or opted for the relative safety of beaten down blue-chip mining stocks according to Ernst & Young director of global mining Tim Williams.
"The logic of merging different companies together makes a lot of sense -- you put one company that's got money together with another that's got a good project but no money, and you might end up with an organisation that's more attractive to investors," Williams says.
"There are one or two companies with substantial cash positions who are now in a very strong position and could begin buying up assets at relatively cheap levels."
An example of the trend came on 25 March 2009 when zinc company Griffin Mining, which has over $60m in cash, said it planned to make an all cash offer for Canadian lead miner, Ivernia Inc. Research by Ernst & Young shows miners on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) at end-2008 were worth just a quarter of their £16bn value six months before.
AIM saw its last mining IPO in June 2008 and many companies are being forced to pull in their horns. Since a lifetime peak in March 2008, the AIM Basic Resources index has crashed 70%, underperforming a fall of almost 60% in the broader AIM index.
Smaller mining companies are vulnerable because they are often explorers, or early-stage mine developers. They lack products to sell and their assets tend to be lower-grade and higher-cost compared with those of big miners like Rio Tinto Plc.
While base metal prices have ticked up this year, they are still a long way off 2008 highs. Copper for instance is 56% off its all-time high hit in July 2008; nickel has plunged almost three quarters in the past year.
These tough conditions have created opportunities for the relatively strong according to Seymour Pierce mining and metals analyst Asa Bridle. "There are one or two companies with substantial cash positions who are now in a very strong position and could begin buying up assets at relatively cheap levels ," Bridle says.
Williams says not only does the joining of operations have its obvious benefits, but it can also open up funding possibilities. "The point about companies getting bigger is that there are economies of scale. They are likely to get more efficient, meaning that they would get on the radar screen of the larger institutional investors."
MSloane Consulting and Metal Bulletin Events announces the China Iron Ore 2009 Conference. Join us at this truly multi-national conference to discuss the issues facing our industries, including the construction equipment and the mining equipment sectors and to find out how you can turn these challenges into opportunities.
Key issues to be discussed include:
China’s economic stimulus plan and impact on steel consumption
Global iron ore supply/demand balance and pricing mechanism
Raw material challenges faced by steel majors
Industry consolidation
Chinese iron ore mining insights and overseas investments
Contract market vs spot market: Australia, India, Africa, Latin America
Logistics, freight and import/export infrastructure
Two events: one price. When you register your place for China Iron Ore 2009 Conference you can attend sessions on the Far East Steel Conference as well, giving you a complete overview of the supply chain, allowing you to maximize your time in China and make new business contacts.
Speakers include:
Tarhan Feyzioglu, Resident Representative—China, International Monetary Fund, China
Wang Yifang, Chairman and President, Hebei Iron & Steel Group Co Ltd, China
Young-Hoon Lee, Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Strategic & Planning Dept, POSCO, Korea
Michael Zhu, President, Vale China, China
Hitoshi Ito, Chief Representative of China, The Japan Iron and Steel Federation, China
Stuart Reynolds, Consultant, Author of “Steel and its Raw Materials”, Metal Bulletin Research, UK
Rod Beddows, Chief Executive, Hatch Corporate Finance, UK
Robert M. Miller, Senior Managing Director, Miller Mathis & Co LLC, USA
Senior executive, Minmetals Corporation, China
Zhang Zaichun, Deputy Director, Business Dept, Qingdao Port (Group) Co Ltd, China
Shicheng Yang (Simon Young), Deputy Director, Research and Development Centre,COSCO Group, China
Dr Wang Shuanghong, Professional Director, Resources Office, Shougang Corporation, China
Russell Scrimshaw, Executive Director, Fortescue Metals Group Ltd, Australia
Professor Clive F. Palmer, Chairman, Mineralogy Pty Ltd, Australia
For further details, contact: Jagruti Lachhani Email:jlachhani@metalbulletin.com marketing@metalbulletin.com
MSloane Consulting Co. has successfully completed its second multi-million dollar sale of the year with the sale of a 10MW power plant in the Philippines.
This power plant was operational and was sold by the owner Mariwasa Siam Ceramics, Inc due to equipment upgrade. The plant was sold to Carmen Copper Corp. who will utilize the plant to off set peak power requirements.
South Africa is preparing for the 2010 Fifa World Cup and is currently constructing the Mbombela Stadium. It is also building five new venues for the event and renovating another five at a total cost of more than £600m as well as upgrading public transport.
Securing a reliable and steady energy supply is an important concern for nations the world over. But for international mining companies like Anglo American, looking beyond the territorial boundaries of their headquarters and assessing energy security in lands far afield is critical if their business is to stay afloat and competitive.
With increased operations in South Africa than anywhere else in the world, Anglo American has already suffered at the hands of enforced power black-outs during 2008 and the company is now determined to take a more proactive approach in controlling its power sources.
Power cuts caused faults in Anglo American's distribution system in South Africa last year as they lost work and money because of our power-generating capacity. Hoe-Richardson, head of energy strategy, focuses on securing the firm's access to electricity wherever its projects are located. Electricity accounts for three quarters of power consumption but because it is not easy to store and its movement is often restricted to national grid systems. When shortages do occur they can often be hard to fix.
Anglo American is now looking at building wind farms in countries such as Namibia and Chile where it has a growing presence, or forming joint ventures which may take the form of buying the land and then contracting out the power-generation work to a local firm.
Kalgold mine in South Africa is an open pit gold mine operation owned by Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited. It is located near Mafikeng in the North West Province of South Africa, the mine includes a Carbon in Leach plant.
A building resembling a prickly cactus is about to sprout from the dusty, dry soil of Qatar to house - appropriately - the Minister for Municipal Affairs and Agriculture.
