BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA Spirit Exploration, Inc. is pleased to announce it has signed an agreement to purchase the Emerson Tungsten Mine near Rachel, Nevada from Nevada Minerals, Inc. This acquisition supports Spirit’s strategic direction to broaden their product base and derive production from multiple countries. Thomas Cunningham, President of Spirit, stated, “We are extremely excited about this acquisition as it strengthens the company by adding tungsten production to our mix of products and also gives us a producing mine in the United States.” Tom added, “We believe, at the present tungsten prices, the Emerson Project is not only feasible but could generate significant profits for Spirit Exploration, Inc.” This agreement is subject to final due diligence to be completed by May 5, 2008.
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The mine and plant were built and developed by Union Carbide Corporation in 1984 and operated for 9 years. After a substantial investment, Union Carbide decided to stop operations in 1993 due to the collapse of tungsten prices. Up to 2005 it was not economically feasible to consider opening the Emerson Mine with tungsten below $65 per unit in market value. In 2005 Tungsten reached $270 USD and has remained at least $250 per unit since. The Emerson Project will be a complete mining operation, which would include an underground mine, major rail and conveyor Read more
Macquarie Harbour Mining provided an exploration update, reporting that drilling commenced at the Gladstone gold project; mobile tin place is under construction – exploration is to start in 2nd quarter; appointment of Joe Booth as Chief Geologist; and exploration momentum: west coat Tasmania iron ore, porphyry copper-gold and nickel projects.
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Constitution Mining Corp. announces the completion of the first phase of a three-phase exploration program at its Atena gold property in Salta Province, northwest Argentina.
Previous exploration by Rio Tinto and others at Atena has led to the identification and mapping of approximately 11 kilometers of mineralized vein structure. Although there remained several large unexplored areas of interest.
The 1st phase of exploration included a thorough examination of the entire property, resulting in the identification and mapping of more than 36 kilometers (21 1/2 miles) of vein structure.
Field geologists collected composite samples from highly leached environments every 54 meters along the entire 36-kilometer vein system. The samples were sent for assay to ALS Chemex, the South American division of ALS Laboratory Group. Read more
New Delhi: As many as seven Indian companies figure in the list of the world’s 250 top performing energy firms, with Reliance Industries, ONGC and NTPC grabbing the top Asian ranks.
In the annual rankings of Platts Top 250 Global Energy, ONGC and Reliance Industries have made into the top 50 with rankings of 23 and 39 respectively. ONGC has also been named as the third best performing energy company in Asia.
The ranking is published every year by Platts, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies and a global energy and metals information provider.
Global oil and gas leaders have consolidated their energy businesses with the ranking led by Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp, followed by the UK’s BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Platts said.
Other Indian firms on the list include Indian Oil Corp (52), NTPC (103), GAIL (135), Bharat Petroleum Corp (203) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (233).
According to Platts, China and India have dominated the sector leadership position. While ONGC has been named as the top Asian firm in the exploration and production (E&P), Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Industries has topped the refining and marketing (R&M) list and NTPC has emerged as the top player in the independent power producers (IPP) category.
Both India and China have seven companies each on the list. However, China is represented by just Petrochina in the top 50 compared to two from India.
There were eight Indian companies on the list last year. However, Neyveli Lignite Corp, ranked 227 in 2006, is not on the list this time. While GAIL India has improved its ranking from 156 last year to 135 this year, ONGC, RIL, IOC, NTPC, BPCL and HPCL have all moved down the rankings. ONGC was ranked 20th, RIL at 30th, Indian Oil at 41st, NTPC at 90th, BPCL at 110th and HPCL at 122nd position last year.
Platts said the list scores the world’s top performing energy companies on a combination of assets, revenues, profits and return on invested capital. Also, all the ranked companies have assets greater than two billion dollars and are publicly listed companies.
Best performing Asian energy business was Petrochina, placed sixth worldwide, and ahead of many long-established western energy companies. It is followed by China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec), India’s ONGC, Thailand’s PTT, and CNOOC from Hong Kong in the top five.
“Under the current volatile and competitive market environment, this year’s rankings are more important than ever in highlighting the truly world class performers in the energy industry,” said Victoria Chu Pao, Platts President in a statement.
The best performers in Europe, Africa and the Middle East were BP, Shell, Total, Norways Statoil and Italys ENI, in that order. In the Americas, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Brazils Petrobras, ConocoPhillips and Valero Energy topped the table.
Meanwhile, the only non-oil and gas companies to break into the top 20 positions were French super-utilities EDF Energy and Suez, ranked 14th and 20th, respectively. Also, Germanys E.ON, Gaz de France, Italys Enel, Belgiums Electrabel and the UKs BG Group are among the top 30 in the list.
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DENVER, CO, – /CNW Telbec/ – International Royalty Corporation (AMEX: ROY, TSX: IRC) (the “Company”) (“IRC”) is pleased to update investors on recent expansions of its gold royalty portfolio. This growth has been achieved both through additional acquisitions and through additional advances and technical work on royalty-bearing projects by the operators.
On December 13, 2007 IRC purchased four royalties from Goldcorp Inc. (“Goldcorp”) for an acquisition cost of US$4.0 million. These four royalties include:
– An effective 0.28% to 2.79% NSR royalty on the Pinson gold project
(“Pinson”). Barrick Gold Corporation is currently completing
feasibility studies on the Pinson project at a cost of
US$30 million(1), to be completed by April, 2009.
– A 0.63% NSR(2) royalty that covers approximately 10% of the Gold Hill
Deposit. This Barrick Gold / Kinross Gold project is in pre-development
with mine and construction planning to attain production in 2009 or
2010. Read more
There’s a unique situation in Nevada that allows ordinary investors to own royalty interests in the state’s biggest and most productive mining operations.
Keep in mind: This has nothing to do with investing in ordinary gold mining companies. It’s much safer, as I’ll show you… and a heck of a lot more profitable.
You see, the practice of allowing ordinary investors to own royalty stakes in lucrative mines dates back more than 150 years in Nevada. Back then, individual investors could buy royalty stakes in gold and silver-filled land. They received royalties as the precious metals were produced. It was probably the safest and easiest way in America to get rich at the time…
Ordinary people made fortunes:
1. Sanford Bowers (Mule skinner from Missouri who earned $100,000/month in mining royalties)
2. James Flood (Saloon owner who made $500,000/month thanks to Nevada’s gold riches)
3. Adolf Sutro (An inventor from California who retired with more than $859,000 thanks to his stake in Nevada’s silver mines) Read more
NMDC Ltd., India’s biggest iron-ore producer, plans to buy a deposit in Canada in its first overseas venture, as it seeks to increase supply of the steelmaking raw material. The deposit contains more than 1 billion tons of iron ore, Rana Som, chairman of the Hyderabad-based company, said in a telephone interview. He declined to give details as he expects to conclude talks in a couple of months.
The deposit will increase supply for NMDC, majority-owned by the Indian government, as demand from India and China surges. Annual contract prices of the commodity have risen the past five years and may jump 80 percent from April, according to a Bloomberg News survey of four analysts published Feb. 8.
”Indian companies are in a hurry to secure supplies as China and India’s demand for steel will keep prices at a record,” Vishal Chandak, an analyst with Emkay Share & Stock Brokers Pvt., said in Mumbai. Read more