Hydro-Québec owns and operates 60 power-generating facilities across the province. It was created in 1944. “At that time it was essentially an electricity distribution operation, with some generation in the greater Montreal region,” explains President and CEO Thierry Vandal, who has led the company since 2005, having joined it in 1996. “That was the situation until 1963 when, through a number of acquisitions, the corporation grew to develop a footprint which covers all the territory of Québec. Hydro-Québec became a regional player.”

When President Jacob Zuma appointed Elizabeth Dipuo Peters to the post of Energy Minister in 2009 one of the key performance areas he asked her to progress was getting greater private sector involvement in power generation.

1994 will undoubtedly forever be the year that mankind associates with the modern South Africa. One does not need to be a historian to know that it was here that the days of apartheid slowly came to end, resulting in the multi-racial democratic election that brought Nelson Mandela and his African National Congress (ANC) to power.

It is fair to say that until recently Kenya was not generally renowned for being a destination for mining investment. However now, with the world’s eyes focused firmly on Africa as an epicentre for mining activities, Kenya is emerging as a location of particular interest in the wake of developments that have proven that the country does indeed hold significant mineral-based potential.

Since we last spoke to Roman Crookes, project manager of the R105 billion Medupi power station, he has refereed a game of two halves. The press has had a field day throughout the three years since June 2010, and any observer could be forgiven for thinking the site has been a battlefield. However in every problem lies an opportunity, and it was good to get a chance to hear firstly about the achievements of the project, then about the good that has come from the setbacks that have been encountered.

Located at the eastern end of the prolific Iberian Pyrite Belt in the province of Seville, Spain, Cobre Las Cruces (CLC) is a highly innovative open pit mine and the first industrial installation of its kind to operate within Europe.

Providing direct employment to 800 employees, as well as generating approximately 1,500 indirect jobs, CLC represents a major €840 million industrial investment into an area that also spans the Spanish provinces of Badajoz and Huelva, and extends through the south of Portugal.

The Swedish firm, famed for its flat-pack furniture and huge warehouse-like stores, announced a rise in global sales of 3.1 percent to 27.9 billion euros for the year, with like-for-like sales rising 1.8 percent during that period.

The company pinpointed Russia and China as the sources of some of its strongest growth, while also insisting that significant progress continues to be made in the US as well.