Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the payment of GBPounds 10 million by the British government to UK Coal until March 2004 to provide social assistance to miners losing their jobs after the closure of its three-mine Selby Complex.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THJE WORLD Bank is granting US$32 million to Madagascar so its government can improve the performance of its small-scale mining sector. This Mineral Resources Governance Project will tighten mining regulation, (especially by local government) boost training, establish a Mining Sector Promotion Agency (which will operate a small grants programme) and create a database of the country’s mineral resources, encouraging investment in the sector.…

BY MARK ROWE
RUSSIAN Aluminium has confirmed that it has been in discussion with officials in Sierra Leone about a possible takeover of a bauxite mine in the country.

Officials at Sierra Leone’s Mineral Resources Ministry said that RusAl had put together an investment project for a bauxite mine in southern Sierra Leone and that the plans formed part of a wider strategic co-operation between the government of Sierra Leone and RusAl.…

BY RICHARD HURST
THE DEMOCRATIC Republic of the Congo government has announced that it intends to increase the country’s falling copper production by refurbishing the Kamoto mine with assistance from Canada’s Kinross Gold Corporation.

Jean-Louis Nkulu Kitshunku, mining minister, said that the deal between the state-owned mining corporation Cecamines and Kinross would was nearing completion and would see the mine’s output increase to 50,000 tonnes of copper per annum in 2004.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
INDIA’S largest zinc and lead producer Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL) is planning to increase the annual capacity of its smelter in Chanderiya, Rajasthan, by 100,000 tonnes, up from its existing 70,000 tonnes per annum production.

Industry sources have been quoted in the Indian press saying that HZL has already raised US$75 million from overseas markets to finance the expansion, with the remainder being secured from Indian banks and lenders.…

BY MARK ROWE
LEADING Thai car and electrical appliance manufacturers have said they are prepared to switch to direct imports of cold-rolled steel amidst a looming shortage and expected subsequent price rise for domestic hot-rolled coils, a raw material for cold-rolled sheets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission wants EU ministers to remove exemptions to existing anti-dumping duties on certain iron or steel ropes and cables that have been enjoyed by Turkish exporter Has Celik ve Halat San Tic AS. It had made price undertakings to escape the duties, but the Commission says it has “breached” these promises.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved state aid of GBPounds 60 million to be paid by the British government to support commercially viable investment coal production projects, maintaining access to reserves at mines that already have a secure future.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank is granting Zambia US$10 million so it can deal with the withdrawal of Anglo American plc (AA) from Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), without the company being wound up and its operations halted. AA acquired majority control of Konkola in 2000 under a World Bank-assisted privatisation, however, in 2002, in announced its abandonment of the mine, threatening to sell, liquidate or transfer the company to the Zambian government.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
SCIENTISTS from Australia’s CSIRO, (the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), have developed technology to produce electricity from waste coal unsuitable for normal power generation, and methane gas that would otherwise pollute the atmosphere.

The CSIRO-Liquatech system burns coal and methane in a kiln producing hot air, which is passed through a heat exchange unit to drive a gas turbine and produce power, which can supply a mine’s own electrical needs or power the national grid.…