Archive

BY RICHARD HURST
THE ETHIOPIAN government has announced it is taking action to reduce the flood of gold being smuggled from the country, after revealing that US$30-million worth of the precious metal, weighing approximately three million grams, is smuggled annually out through neighbouring countries.…

BY RICHARD HURST
INDIAN steel producer Tata Steel has launched an environmental impact assessment (EIA) study to determine the ecological feasibility of building a high carbon ferrochrome smelter in Richards Bay, Kwazulu-Natal. The project would attract tax relief from the South African Department of Trade and Industry’s Strategic Industrial Projects budget, with a potential subsidy being worth as much as Rand 480 million, (US$59.45 million).…

BY RICHARD HURST
ZAMBIA’S Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) has posted a consolidated loss of US$159-million for the 2002 financial year which saw the exit of its key shareholder, the diversified mining giant Anglo American.

Barry Ireton, KCM chairman, blamed the loss on a continued depressed metal price during the year and a write off, (naming it a “negative impairment adjustment”), of US$104-million, about which he would not give details.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Central Bank has released guidelines on how printers can stay within the law when reproducing Euro banknotes, whether as a specimen or as part of a design. The rules, said a bank memorandum: “grant adequate protection to euro banknotes and avoid reproductions being confused with genuine banknotes.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the payment of more than Euro 3.3 billion to the German coal mining industry for this year, while also accepting a restructuring plan for the sector that will reduce subsidies and production until 2007.…

BY RICHARD HURST
CANADA’S PMI Ventures has announced that drilling has begun on its Ashanti II deep gold project, in Ghana, West Africa. The initial target being tested is in the Grid B area of the Fromenda concession. The programme consists of 1,050 metres of diamond drilling in eight to ten holes.…

BY MARK ROWE
MORE than 100 gold mining companies had their licences revoked in the far eastern Russian region of Magadan last year for violating procedures and legal guidelines on excavation. In addition, 69kg of illegally mined gold were confiscated during 2002 in the region, according to the Russian interior ministry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has granted environmental approval to plans for extending the life of Germany’s Prosper Haniel Colliery, near near Bottrop in North-Rhine Westphalia, using its powers to protect the EU’s Natura 2000 conservation sites. Brussels said the potential ecological damage that may be caused by continued operations at Haniel was justified by “reasons of overriding public interest.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CHIEF of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has announced the spending of Euro 17.3 million on repairs to the province’s coal fired power plants and associated mines, which have suffered from lack of maintenance and have also been damaged by lightning and a landslide, (at the Mirash coal mine).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS with many projects inspired by the start of the next 997 years and the last three, the framing of the United Nations’ (UN) Millennium Development Goals was an ambitious enterprise.

Imposing statistically measurable targets for international organisations and national governments in making improvements in global poverty, education, gender equality, health, the environment and education, they have proved tough to attain.…