Wednesday 30th January 2013 was a particular significant date for Canada Fluorspar Inc (CFI). It was on this day that the company proudly announced the results of a newly completed Preliminary Feasibility Study (PFS) for its St Lawrence fluorspar project in Newfoundland.

Historically used in aluminium production, protective clothing containing Kevlar, Teflon for non-stick frying pans, and refrigerants and air conditioning, fluorspar is a halide mineral of increasing importance, specifically when it comes to new manufacturing technologies.

African Minerals (AML) started life in 1996 as the Sierra Leone Diamond Company, focused on Sierra Leone’s deposits of alluvial diamonds. In 2005 it raised £20 million on London’s AIM market and three years later confirmed its Tonkolili magnetite resource in Sierra Leone’s Northern Province.

The deal comes at a time when Sharp has been activity trying to restructure its operations.

Analysts have reacted to the news by saying that the investment from Samsung was likely to provide a boost to Sharp's efforts to revive its business.

"For Sharp, this is good news from all fronts," said Gerhard Fasol of Eurotechnology Japan in Tokyo. "Not only can Samsung help Sharp smooth its production and operations, it can also become a key customer of Sharp's products, especially flat screens.”

In the same way that it had a hugely symbolic meaning to ancient Egyptian culture, gold was just as central to ancient Greeks, in this case as a financial commodity. In fact it was as early as 550 BC that the Greeks had begun mining for gold across the Mediterranean and into Middle Eastern territory. By 325 BC, the Greeks had successfully mined across an area spanning from Gibraltar to Asia Minor and Egypt.

Dubbed Hope City, it will be built on empty land and will employ approximately 50,000 people, and provide housing for 25,000.

The head of local technology giant RLG Communications, Roland Agambire, has revealed that his company was investing in Hope City with the aim of making Ghana globally competitive.

"What we are trying to do here is to develop the apps [applications] from scratch," he said. "This will enable us to have the biggest assembling plant in the world to assemble various products - over one million within a day.”.

The wind project, which will be the largest single private investment in Kenya’s history, has the added backing of the African Development Bank, Kenya Power and Vision 2030. The signing of the Letter of Support for the project will now allow it to enter the final phase of financing.

The company’s 12 percent profit rise, to the tune of £443 million, was underpinned by the strong performance of its minerals division.

Weir Minerals, which specialises in supplying slurry handling equipment, was boosted by continued demand growth in Chinese and emerging markets for key commodities such as copper.

Weir also said cost efficiencies helped it achieve a record year, which saw revenue up by 12 percent to more than £2.5 billion.