(Bloomberg) — Aquila Resources Ltd., seeking to build a A$3.9 billion ($3.8 billion) iron ore project, said Chinese steelmakers are interested in buying a stake in the proposed Australian operation to secure supplies of the raw material.

“There is a lot of interest in off-take, in equity participation,” in the Western Australian project, Tony Poli, chief executive officer of the Perth-based company, said today in a phone interview. Aquila also produces coal in the Bowen Basin in Queensland state.

Chinese companies are snapping up mining assets in Australia to ensure supplies for the world’s fastest-growing major economy. Acquisitions of coal and iron-ore assets in Australia, the world’s largest exporter of the raw materials, will rise as steelmakers try to reduce costs, UBS AG said in a May 21 report.
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SOURCE: Pan African Mining Corp.

VANCOUVER, BC — /Marketwire/ – Pan African Mining Corp. (TSX-V: PAF) (PINKSHEETS: PAFRF) (Frankfurt: P2A) (the “Company”) announces that it has now mailed out the Information Circular and related Proxy Materials to its shareholders, warrantholders and optionholders for the Special Meeting of Securityholders now set for June 25, 2008 to approve the plan of arrangement (the “Plan of Arrangement”) and related transactions set forth in the Arrangement Agreement dated May 9, 2008, among Asia Thai Mining Co., Ltd. (“ATM”), 0819615 B.C. Ltd. (the “Purchaser”), the Company and African Queen Mines Ltd. (“African Queen”), a newly formed subsidiary of the Company. On May 26, 2008, the Company obtained an interim court order from the Supreme Court of British Columbia authorizing it to proceed with the Special Meeting.

Under the Plan of Arrangement and related documents, the Purchaser will offer to purchase on the effective date all of the outstanding common shares of the Company at the price of $4.00 cash per share and also offer to purchase for cash all outstanding warrants and all outstanding Read more

The Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources is hosting the first Wildlife Trade Regulation training workshop.

The three-day workshop is held as part of Brunei’s commitment to tackle organised poaching and trafficking of wild animals and plants in Southeast Asia.

It is organised by the Department ofAgriculture, as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora management authority of Brunei, and TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.

It is also part of a series of training programmes to increase wildlife law enforcement capacity throughout the region under the umbrella of the Asean-Wen (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Wildlife Enforcement Network) initiative.
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HANOI – AFP: Asia’s rainforests are being rapidly destroyed, a trend accelerated by surging timber demand in booming China and India, and record food, energy and commodity prices, forest experts warn.

The loss of these biodiversity hot spots, much of it driven by the illegal timber trade and the growth of oil palm, biofuel and rubber plantations, is worsening global warming, species loss and poverty, they said.

Globally, tropical forest destruction “is a super crisis we are facing, it’s an appalling crisis,” said Oxford University’s Professor Norman Myers, keynote speaker at the Asia-Pacific Forestry Week conference in Hanoi.

“It’s one of the worst crises since we came out of our caves 10,000 years ago,” Myers said at the five-day meeting of 500 foresters, researchers, state officials and activists held last week in the Vietnamese capital.
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CANBERRA (AFP) — Australia’s international image will not be damaged by a controversial cull of wild kangaroos on government land in the capital, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Tuesday.

Asked whether killing the hopping marsupials, which appear on the country’s coat of arms, would harm Australia’s reputation, Smith said: “No, I don’t think it will.”

The Department of Defence said it ordered the cull of about 400 eastern grey kangaroos, which began Monday, as a last option after the animals overcrowded the site in Canberra, threatening endangered flora and fauna.

The killing of the iconic creatures has been attacked by some animal rights groups who say Australia, which this summer led international criticism against Japan for its annual whale hunt in the Southern Ocean, should relocate them.
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The coal ministry is preparing plans for new projects, which will be submitted to the Cabinet in a month, according to Union minister of state for coal Santosh Bagrodia.

Talking to mediapersons here, Bagrodia said though several projects were in the pipeline, the ministry was working on more projects to make the country self-sufficient in coal.

He said efforts were being made to ensure that coal imports did not exceed 50 million tonne per year by 2011, the end the current five-year Plan. Last year, coal imports stood at 42 million tonne. Of this, 22 million tonne was coking coal.

The private sector has been allotted 182 coal blocks for mining. Of these, 17 had come into production till now, while the remaining were expected to commence production over the next three years, he said.
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Nasarawa State Government has been advised to liaise with the federal ministry of steel and mining to mine the coal in Obi Local Government Area.

The Osuko of Obi, Alhaji Aliyu Dangiwa Ogiri-Orume, gave the advice while speaking with Nigerian Newsday in his palace at Obi recently.

Alhaji Orume said with the help of the state government, the federal ministry of steel and mining could be invited to the site in Obi for proper mining.

The traditional ruler said the coal in Obi was first discovered and explored by the steel council in the early 70’s and that no mining took place since then.

He said the presence of a mining company would create jobs for the youth and the people of the area. Read more