Mining and Exploration

Sometimes, taking the next step in a company’s growth means giving up total independence, as Alan Swaby learns.

South Africa has a history of engineering contractors growing to the point where they implode and disappear. Over the years, most of the world’s biggest contractors have been attracted by the vast amount of work generated by the country’s mining industry; but you’d hardly know that now. Compare today’s crop of contractors with those of 30 years ago and only a few remain.

Zimbabwean ferrochrome producer Zimasco is emerging strongly from the economic downturn. CEO Sydwell Jena talks to Gay Sutton about turning a challenging situation into an operational advantage, and about the company’s plans for growth.

As a training ground, the oil and gas industry of Pakistan offers entrants plenty of scope for learning their trade, as Alan Swaby discovers.

Try as it may, the Pakistani oil and gas industry has yet to hit the big time. The first oil well was spudded a century and a half ago and there has been no shortage of exploration since then. Part of the problem is that there seems to be more gas than oil in Pakistan; and it was only in the last three to four decades that the demand for gas picked up.

Golden Star Resources has made its name by succeeding where others have failed.     COO Scott Barr talks to Gay Sutton about developing gold mines and sustainable job creation in Ghana.

A start-up Australian mining company has found its own solution for getting into production, but is in no rush to grow haphazardly, as Alan Swaby learns.

As operator of the largest gold mine in Australia, Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines has a positive approach towards sustainability, its employees and the surrounding community. Andrew Pelis finds out more

Western Australia is a vast, arid region that on the face of it offers little encouragement for prosperity. Yet in 1893, the discovery of gold near Kalgoorlie-Boulder was the catalyst for an oasis.

Reliance Industries, India’s biggest company by market value, agreed to buy its third shale gas asset in the US this year, acquiring a 60 percent stake in acreages from Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. and its partner.

Reliance will pay $392 million for the stake in the Marcellus shale gas areas of central and north-east Pennsylvania. The Mumbai-based company will pay $340 million in cash and cover part of Carrizo’s drilling costs over two years.

Kinross Gold Corporation, Canada’s third largest gold producer, has agreed to buy the remaining 91 percent of shares of Red Back Mining Inc. that it does not already own, to expand into Africa.

Red Back, based in Vancouver, operates the Tasiast mine in Mauritania and the Chirano mine in Ghana, and has exploration projects in both countries. Kinross has mines and projects in Canada, the United States, Brazil, China and Russia.

Xstrata, the world’s largest exporter of coal used for power, said its first half profit more than tripled on the back of a jump in metal prices from a year earlier.

The Zug, Switzerland-based company said that net income rose to $2.3 billion (approximately €1.7 billion) from $690 million a year earlier, beating analysts’ estimates. Sales rose by 43 per cent to $13.7 billion (approx. €10.3 billion).

For more than 25 years, Jetcrete has been providing shaft wall building, ground stabilization and related services to mining and construction companies across the Australian continent. Now, thanks to a joint venture with Thyssen Mining, the company is aggressively entering the North American mining market, as Keith Regan learns from the joint venture’s general manager.