Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development is planning to lend Euro 15.9 million to Italy’s Duferco, to fund buy-outs of minority shareholders in Russian grain oriented steel producer VIZ-Stahl. It is already controlled and managed by Duferco, and the bank thinks full-ownership would lead to “full commercial development” by a company “with a clear strategic view on the steel sector and proven ability in acquiring and turning around steel plants.”…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADIAN consultancies Wardrop Engineering and Micon International are to offer joint advice on metallurgical projects, from initial resource estimation, feasibility studies and operational analysis, to site closure. Micon’s specialisms include ore reserve estimation, metallurgical design, mineral property valuation and monitoring of project development for international banking syndicates.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank has drawn up plans to lend First Quantum Minerals Ltd up to Euro 14 million to expand the Bwana Mkubwa hydrometallurgical copper production facility in Ndola, in the Zambian copper-belt.

Its aim is to boost its copper production from 10,000 tonnes per annum to 30,000 tonnes per annum, extending the useful life of the plant by at least six years.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
A FINE-GRAINED red mud left after alumina has been extracted from bauxite is showing promise as a way of cleansing waste- water, a potential new environment-friendly market for the mineral.

The residue can remove phosphorous and heavy metals from water with a lower pH level than normal, which can then be released within quality limits.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Montreal
THE SASKATCHEWAN provincial government in Canada has banned the advertising and displaying of tobacco products in retail outlets where people under the age of eighteen are allowed on the premises.

Shopkeepers must hide all tobacco products from patrons by enclosing them in non- transparent cabinets, behind curtains or blinds or selling them from under the counter.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND MONICA DOBIE
AMERICAN retail giant Wal-Mart is to launch a pilot project where it will sell second hand cars at five of its branches in Houston, Texas. Part of the company’s one-stop-shopping policy, the aims it for it to sell vehicles without haggling and a prices that are below the going rate.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
AMERICA’S Washington and Oregon state-based Thrift Way supermarket chain is to introduce fingerprint scanning to authorise payments, speeding up checkout queues. The new biometric technology is also designed to prevent credit card fraud. Readers on credit-card machines at checkouts check customers’ fingerprints and send encrypted data to data centres operated by Indivos, the company providing the service.…

KEITH NUTHALL
WIDE-RANGING consultation has been launched by the European Commission into the idea of harmonising national laws across the European Union that regulate who is liable when a product is defective and a consumer wants to claim compensation.

EU justice and home affairs Commissioner Antonio Vitorino has claimed that with cross-border shopping growing between Member States, European citizens should be clear about their rights, wherever they buy goods or services.…

BY MARK ROWE
A CONTACTLESS card that can pay for groceries without being swiped through a payment machine at a supermarket checkout counter is to be tested with consumers in Singapore. The card can store 500 times more data than that of existing smart cards – enough data storage space to hold a small novel.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Montreal
CANADIAN casual clothing retailer Au Coton Inc has announced that it is insolvent and will be restructured under bankruptcy legislation, owing creditors more than CAN$23 million.

It is not yet confirmed how many of the 140 stores across the country will be affected.…