Posted on March 12th, 2010
Gabriel Resources has been battling for years to get the Rosia Montana gold mine in Romania into production. It has been an uphill struggle against myriad political and NGO objections - much of which does not make sense as not only will the project provide very valuable jobs in the region, it will also clean up a great amount of historical environmental damage. Gabriel sounds optimistic in its fourth quarter 2009 report.
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Posted on March 12th, 2010
Arch Coal has acquired a 35% equity interest in the Trailblazer Energy Center, which is being developed by Tenaska near Sweetwater, Texas. Trailblazer will rank among the world’s cleanest fossil-fuel-based power plants and act as a strategic source of carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) applications in West Texas. Moreover, Trailblazer will supply the Texas economy with an additional 600 MW of clean, secure, reliable electric generating capacity.
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Posted on March 12th, 2010
Global Witness has reported that ex-rebels are involved in a mineral trade extortion racket. Campaigners are calling for immediate demilitarisation of the mining sector. Commenting on the report, Jack Telford, CEO of Gippsland says “Clearly the criminal elements (both inside and outside the DRC) retain control of the illegal tantalum trade (coltan) in both North and South Kivu, from whence >95% of the conflict tantalum originates. Moves are afoot by leading electronic companies to ensure that their products do not contain tantalum originating from the DRC.”
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Posted on March 11th, 2010
ABB has won a renewal from Vale Inco Newfoundland & Labrador for all maintenance-related activities covering plant production equipment at its Voisey’s Bay facility in Canada. The aim is to improve productivity and reduce costs. Since the agreement commenced, it has helped Vale Inco achieve the fastest ramp-up of all the company’s greenfield sites in 2005; attain all-time production levels in 2006; achieve 1,000 days with no lost time due to injury in 2007; and reach the highest tonnes-per-day production in 2008.
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Posted on March 11th, 2010
A pilot plant to prove that the underground coal to liquids (UCTLTM) process can convert low rank brown coal/lignite into valuable commodities is set to be commissioned this month. Owner of the plant, Regal Resources’ first focus of the testing program will be on placing samples within the test vessel and exposing them to the UCTL high velocity/temperature water spray with supercritical properties. Other samples of Canadian oil sands are intended to be included in the surface testing program.
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