Search Results for: South Africa

BY KEITH NUTHALL
POLITICAL pressure is rising on negotiators at the WTO tasked with striking a deal over a geographical indication register for traditionally made wines and spirits. WTO members have long debated the issue and have not bridged the gap between countries such as the USA, which want a powerless register for guidance on protected terms and the EU and its allies, which want registration to grant compulsory worldwide protection.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has given the Spanish government two months to provide full information about the environmental impact of its highly controversial National Hydroelectric Plan (NHP) or face a possible action in the European Court of Justice. The Commission says Spain has not responded to a request for information made last September on how it assessed a proposed hydro-electric project in the catchment area of the River Ulla in Galicia.…

KEITH NUTHALL
INNOVATION from European Union-funded research has continued to offer improvements to the way that EU water utilities work. For instance, the European Commission-funded MicroChem initiative has developed miniaturised laboratory-on-a-chip systems suitable for rapid field testing of water streams. They examine water in tiny pictolitre quantities, flowing through microbore channels produced by photolithographic etching.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DRINKS industry lobbyists are waiting for the imminent release of a draft proposal to create a deal at the World Trade Organisation over a geographical indication register for traditionally made wines and spirits. WTO members have long tried to bridge the gap between the USA, which wants a powerless register for guidance on protected terms and the EU, which wants registration to grant compulsory worldwide protection.…

BY RICHARD HURST
NATURAL resources giant Anglo American has recently announced that its wholly owned forest products subsidiary, Mondi South Africa, is to proceed with a US$220 million expansion and modernisation of its Richards Bay pulp mill in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, increasing its capacity for bleached eucalyptus pulp production by some 40 per cent.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
POLITICAL pressure is rising on negotiators at the World Trade Organisation tasked with striking a deal over a geographical indication register for traditionally made wines and spirits. WTO members have long been debating the issue and have not been able to bridge the gap between countries such as the USA, which want a powerless register for guidance on protected terms and the EU and its allies, which want registration to grant compulsory worldwide protection.…

BY RICHARD HURST
SOUTH African petrochemicals giant Sasol recently announced the planned construction of a new “multi-million US dollar” 1-octene production petrochemical plant at Secunda, in South Africa. This hydrocarbon molecule imparts elasticity, flexibility, impact resistance and strength to plastic consumer products.…

BY MARK ROWE
RUSSIA has ordered its farmers to destroy almost 90,000 chicks it fears comes from the Netherlands because of the avian-flu outbreak in that country. The virus was founding in imported Dutch hatching eggs in two towns south of Moscow and the Russian agriculture ministry has asked European veterinary services to provide additional safety guarantees about egg and chick exports.…

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 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).…