“Let’s put it this way, junior miners have had quite the challenging time over the last two years.” Those are the words of John Gravelle, Partner and Global Mining Leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), when questioned about what life has been like for the junior mining sector, both in Canada and beyond.

Regrettably, the issue of conflict minerals is not a new one. Even more regrettable is the fact that minerals mined in conditions of armed conflict and human rights abuses continue to find their way to market.

A company best known for its Firefox browser, Mozilla has launched a new low-cost smartphone in India that will retail for 1,999 rupees ($33). The phone is for sale exclusively on India's online shopping site, Snapdeal.

The 24/7 boss
This boss puts everything into their job and is constantly looking to take one for the team. They have no concept of the word ‘holiday’ and are in regardless of the weather, or even their own health. Of course, they expect you to meet the same high standards, so forget about trying to leave early to catch your dentist appointment.

Announcing first half figures that showed a swing back into the black with a net profit of $1.72 billion for the period compared to a $9.39 billion loss in the first half last year,Glencore declared an interim dividend of $0.06 a share. It now plans to return $1 billion to investors over the next six months through a share buyback.

The Winter Members’ Meeting of the Institute for the Study of Business Markets focused on the theme of “customer experience”. Leading academics, business researchers, and practitioners from best practice companies provided what I found to be clear evidence that attention to the many factors that determine the quality of your customer’s experience with your firm has a positive bottom-line payoff. It was remarkable how often customer loyalty and purchase decisions were influenced by “little things” that are often overlooked.

Igor Sechin, head of Rosneft and a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been told by the government that it will consider his request over the coming fortnight. The state-controlled energy giant, which is almost 20 per cent owned by BP, is barred from receiving any credit with a maturity of more than 90 days from US or European banks. However Rosneft suggested that the Kremlin could use money from the National Wealth Fund, a fund earmarked to fund Russian state pensions. The money would be used to purchase Rosneft bonds.

Brent crude, the benchmark for world oil prices, hit a 13 month low on August 13 before recovering to end at $104.28 a barrel. Since mid-June prices have gradually come down by more than nine percent. The most recent losses came after the International Energy Agency (IEA) earlier this week lowered its demand forecast for 2014, with weaker than expected second-quarter economic growth in developed countries and a reduction in oil stockpiling on the part of China.

Net profits at India's largest automotive manufacturer tripled to 53.98 billion rupees ($882 million) in the three months to the end of June, far exceeding analysts' expectations had expected. Revenue grew by nearly 40 percent.

In the quarter ending June 30, JLR’s revenues hit £5.4b billion, a 31 percentage rise of £1.3 billion on the same period last year. Pre-tax profit more than doubled from £415 million to £924 million prompting CEO Ralf Speth to say: “This financial performance reflects Jaguar Land Rover’s award-winning product portfolio."