India and Australia, led by minister of mines Mr Sis Ram Ola and Premier of Western Australia Mr Alan Carpenter, at a meeting recently, the two sides felt the need to encourage mutual investment by the companies from India and Australia and have discussed the possibilities of further enhancing cooperation in the mining sector.

Mr Ola said that a highly conducive atmosphere has evolved between two countries for greater investment as India has huge potential for prospecting minerals and an investor friendly policy is currently under consideration of the Indian government. Mr Ola invited investments in both prospecting and mapping & surveys to establish mineral resources with the help of latest technology. He underlined the keen desire of the government to replace the USD 20 billion worth of mineral imports by domestically prospecting for the same.

Mr Carpenter also felt the need for taking forward cooperation and informed that Western Australia has vast areas with tremendous potential for finding minerals. The Indian companies could take advantage of this as also the Australian companies could benefit from the possibilities in India.

It is reported that the Communist Party of India will oppose the disinvestment initiatives of the union government announced recently in the three power public sector units Rural Electric Corporation, Power Grid Corporation of India and National Hydroelectric Power Corporation.

Mr Gurudas Das Gupta CPI leader in the Lok Sabha said Our party is not in favor of the sale of Government's stake in these power companies and we will oppose the disinvestments.

Coal India Ltd is considering to utilizing e procurement method to streamline the procurement process to reduce costs and maintain greater transparency starting with mining explosives amounting to around INR 800 crore.

Mr NC Jha director technical of CIL on the sidelines of a global sourcing conference organized by the Indian Institute of Materials Management told reporters that "The pilot project is likely to be in place in the next three months. We are already in talks with MMTC and metaljunction on the e-procurement platform. Once the pilot e-procurement project is successful, CIL would go ahead with more online buying.

Mr Jha said that initially CIL would only invite price bids on the e-procurement platform and the techno feasibility evaluation will be done on paper and later shifting entire process on line.

After explosives and its accessories, other items to be procured via e-sourcing would include tires for off the road vehicles, dumpers, mining equipment, safety gear, drilling equipment and other material CIL needs to carry out its operations.

The report mentions that this decision is triggered by discovery of a cartel formation for supplies of explosives to CIL last year.

The 4,000 MW Krishnapatnam ultra mega power project in Andhra Pradesh seems to be wedged as state government is not responding to award the UMPP which was schedule for April 2007.

The state government said it is yet to decide on issues like port handling charges, permission for use of sea water, land acquisition and development of infrastructure for the project.

The special purpose vehicle for Krishnapatnam ultra mega power project is Power Finance Corporations subsidiary Coastal Andhra Power Limited.

Andhra Pradesh would get 1,600 MW of total 4,000 MW generated as a major beneficiary from this UMPP.

Business Line reported that Visa Group through its Singapore based newly launched ship chartering and logistics arm Visa Comtrade Asia Ltd proposes to acquire ships either through outright purchase or by way of long term time charter.

Mr Vishambhar Saran chairman of the Visa Group told Business Line recently that "We've been engaged in ship chartering for quite some time now and we would like to consolidate our position in shipping through acquisition. However we will go only for dry bulk carriers, preferably super handymax and panamax types".

Mr Saran added that "Our plan to acquire ships is the logical culmination of what we've been doing in shipping all these years ultimately owning and operating ships will be one of our major activities. Right now the ship prices are pretty high but we hope to complete acquisition of two to three vessels in the second half of 2007 or early 2008."

Visa Group is a major player in international trading for a long time. Visa Comtrade AG Zug is the international trading arm of the Group engaged in trading in raw materials and products such as thermal coal, coking coal, LAM coke, chrome ore concentrates, iron ore and manganese ore and non-ferrous metals.

TATA Steel has won the Amity Corporate Excellence Award from Amity International Business School at Noida.

An expert panel consisting of academicians and management students from Amity Business School analyzed 200 companies across different sectors. Few of the key perspectives taken into consideration were: years of existence in India, employees strengths, gross revenue, market capitalization, net fixed assets, key initiatives taken by the organization and social responsibilities. Based on the results of this research, TATA Steel emerged as a contender for the award.

Amity Corporate Excellence Award is given to corporate, which have excelled in their respective domains & have outshined other companies because of their distinct vision, innovation, competitiveness & sustenance.

SNS reported that all the surface miner and wagon loading civil contractors engaged by Coal India Limiteds Mahanadi Coalfield Limited have decided to stop their work from 25 February 25th 2007 demanding immediate reimbursement of the service taxes they had paid to the Central excise department from August 2002.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the contractors recently by 19 civilian transport and surface miner contract agencies working at MCLs Talcher and IB Valley Coalfield.

The report mentions that Coal India Limiteds South Eastern Coalfield Limited and Western Coalfield Limited have already begun paying the service tax to their contractors upon their request.

It is reported that RPG group is planning to invest INR 10,000 crore for setting up a 2000MW power plant.

Mr Harsh Goenka chairman of RPG at a media conference said that We are in talks with West Bengal Orissa and Jharkhand governments to set up the plant and will be signing a purchase agreement for coal soon.

RPG group already has a 40% stake in CESC Ltd in West Bengal.

ET has reported that Ratnagiri Gas and Power Private Limited is expected to start generation at all its three blocks with a total installed capacity of 2,150MW by November 2007.

Mr Chandan Roy chairman of RGPPL on the sidelines of a seminar on flyash said "We expect to receive gas from GAIL Ltd by March 2007. Following this, Block 3 will be commissioned. Subsequently Block 2, which is already running on naphtha, will be switched over to gas as fuel. Block 1 is expected to start generation by November 2007.

Mr Roy added "There has been a delay in availability of gas following which there was a delay in commissioning the three blocks. We now hope that Petronet LNG will be able to supply gas by March 2007 and we will be able to start generation by April by April 2007.

RGPPL, formerly known as Dabhol power plant had run into financial trouble and was closed down a few years go. It recently started generation from Block 2. RGPPL has a total installed capacity of 2,150MW in three blocks. The first block has an installed capacity of 670MW, while Block 2 and Block 3 have capacities of 740MW each.

NTPC and GAIL holds 28% stake each in RGPPL and MSEB 15%, IDBI Bank 11%, ICICI Bank 7%, State Bank of India 9% & Canara Bank 2%.

Nagarjuna Constructions has bagged a contract worth INR 17.42 crore for implementing regional water supply scheme for 45 villages from Nathdwara headwork's of Bagheri ka Naka Water Supply Project on turnkey basis. Completion is scheduled in 18 months.

Bagheri Ka Naka Water Supply Project covers nearly 206 villages in Rajsamand district with an estimated cost of INR 128.40 crore. The project is completely funded through Accelerated Rural Water Supply Program.

It is reported that the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi Emirate has endorsed the establishment of Emirates Steel Plant as a subsidiary of the General Holding Company which is wholly owned by the Government of Abu Dhabi. The board also decided to incorporate the existing Emirates Steel Factory in the new company.

The establishment of the new plant would entail the expansion of existing facilities of Emirates Steel Factory by injecting AED 4 billion worth of investments including the ongoing expansion of ESF for the cost of AED 3 billion.

The new company's board is chaired by Mr Husain Jassim Al Noweis, while members are Mr Abu Bakr Sediq Khouri, Mr Dhafer Ayed Al Ahbabi, Mr Soheil Mubarak Al Ameri and Mr Ahmed Sohail Al Muheiri.

Emirates Steel Factory has an annual production capacity of 650,000 metric tonnes. The new expansion of the factory will raise the capacity to 2 million tonnes.

It is reported that Arcelor Mittals Mittal Steel South Africa plans to continue importing steel from its parent company to meet the strong domestic demand in South Africa. As per reports, steel imports are likely to continue until Mittal Steel SA's ZAR 9 billion capital spending program for raising its annual steel production by 2 million tons comes on stream by 2009.

Preliminary figures from the South African Iron and Steel Institute showed that domestic steel consumption in 2006 increased by 26% YoY to 5.8 million tonnes.

South Africas biggest producer Mittal Steel SA has estimated that various internal and external disruptions in 2006 reduced its crude steel out by almost 480 000 tonnes resulting in annual output of 7.05 million tons as compared to 7.3 million tons in 2005, which resulted in lesser domestic availability and increased imports.

Mr Rick Reato CEO of Mittal Steel SA however told Engineering News that he expects growth to slow to around 5% but to remain robust for a number of years yet, given that much of the infrastructure related demand was yet to materialize. Mr Reato said that imports would also be reduced to some extant as much of the steel imported in 2006 was galvanized steel, which would now be available from Mittal Steel SAs newly opened 100 000 tonnes per year galvanizing line at Vanderbijlpark.

Anglo American announced that it has increased its production of zinc to 334,700 tonnes in 2006 from 324,200 tonnes in 2005 despite a loss of production at the Skorpion operations in Namibia.

As per report Skorpion was forced to suspend operations for 20 days in August 2006 after a hydrogen fire, which resulted in zinc metal production sliding to 129,900 tonnes from 132,800 tonnes in 2005 although by the end of the year the mine was back operating at design capacity of 150,000 tonnes per year.

However the impact at Skorpion was offset by higher production at the Lisheen mine in Ireland with 170,700 tonnes production in 2006 as compared to 159,300 tonnes in 2005 and at the Black Mountain mine in South Africa with 34,100 tonnes production in 2006 as compared to 32,100 tonnes in 2005.

It is reported that POSCO shareholders have approved extension of Mr Lee Ku taek CEO of POSCOs term by another three years.

Other board members, including Mr Yoon Seok-man CMO and Mr Chung Jun-yang CTO are also retaining their posts.

According to the Russias Federal State Statistics Service, metallurgical production and production of finished metal items in January 2007 is up by 9.9% YoY as compared with 7.6% in 2006.

Production of finished ferrous metal roll totaled 5.2 million tonnes in January 2007 up by 10.1% as compared with January 2006.

BHP Billiton is working on a black economic empowerment deal on the Richards Bay Minerals project at KwaZulu Natal in South Africa and is hoping to close the deal for submission of its application for new order rights conversion. The deadline for mining rights conversion for existing mineral rights holders is April 2009.

Mr Alberto Calderon president of diamonds and specialty products with BHPB during a teleconference said that BHPB was working on a full BEE deal but was also hoping to go beyond the deal for involving the local community. He said We are working well on the deal, but are still months away from concluding the deal.

BHP Billiton has a 50% stake in RBM, with mining group Rio Tinto owning the other half. The deadline for mining rights conversion for existing mineral rights holders is April 2009.

According to figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers China's automobile industry made a profit of CNY 76.8 billion in 2006 up by 46% YoY over 2005.

CAAM said that China's auto industry sold 7.22 million auto vehicles in 2006 up by 25% YoY and overtook Japan to become the world's 2nd largest auto market. It added that China's automakers produced 7.28 million vehicles in 2006 up by 27.32% YOY over 2005 making it the 3rd largest auto producer in the world. CAAM predicted China's auto market demand will reach 8 million in 2007.

China's auto industry has been developing rapidly in recent years, mainly driven by sharply increased individual buyers. China has about 1,500 registered auto producers, of which fewer than 100 sold more than 10,000 vehicles in 2006 and many small manufacturers sold only 300 to 500 vehicles. In 2006 more than 100 new sedan models hit the country's market including 36 homegrown brands.

Chinas National Development and Reform Commission warned in December 2006 that the auto industry was overheated which could lead to over production.

Malaysia Smelting Corp owner of Indonesian tin producer PT Koba Tin in a statement said that it hopes the police probe of Koba Tin's operations will be resolved within the first quarter so that it can resume tin exports. MSC has maintained its innocence and offered to cooperate with police during the investigation but criticized the impact that the police action has had on the global tin market.

PT Koba Tin declared force majeure on February 12th 2007 after Indonesian police arrested 3 officials at Koba Tin and banned all shipments and deliveries. Indonesian police alleged that the company collected tin ore from small scale miners operating outside its contract work area.

MSC owns a 75% stake in Indonesias 2nd largest tin producer PT Koba Tin, which has an annual production capacity of about 24,000 metric tons.

Pakistans Daily Times has reported that Pakistans Supreme Court has ordered closure of Modern Steel Mills and Potohar Steel Mills in Islamabad under the Environmental Protection Act 1979 for not observing the environmental standards and posing a serious threat to the life of the residents of I-9 and I-10 sectors until they adopted environment friendly measures.

The Supreme Court has also directed administration to conduct a survey of the Industrial Area to ascertain whether or not the Environmental Protection Act was being implemented by the industrial units and submit a report to the court within two months. The court also directed Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency to hold meetings with the provincial environmental agencies and submit a report on the outcome of the meeting.

Industrial Estate Islamabad was established in 1963 and houses more than 200 industries with 115 having the potential of generating pollution including 8 steel melting furnaces, 11 rolling mills and 25 other steel mills. In the Master Plan of Islamabad, it was isolated from the residential area through a buffer zone, but now the residential area has developed very close to it.

The major environmental problem at the Industrial Estate Islamabad is emissions from the steel melting furnaces which contribute heavily to air pollution in the industrial estate of I-9 and I-10. These industries had already been directed to install efficient pollution devices in a specific timeframe.

Russian metal gaint Norilsk Nickel announced that it has secured a USD 450 million syndicated bank loan. As per report Norilsk Nickel will pay a margin of 42.5bps over LIBOR in the first three years, increasing to 50bps for the fourth ands fifth years.

The loan syndication was heavily oversubscribed and Norilsk Nickel elected to increase the facility size to USD 450 million from the original launch amount of USD 300 million.

The loan was arranged, fully underwritten and syndicated by Barclays Capital, ING Bank N.V and Societe Generale Corporate investment banking division. Societe Generale is also acting as facility agent and documentation agent.

Norilsk Nickel is the world's leading producer of nickel and palladium, one of the largest producers of platinum and one of the top ten producers of copper in the world.

Global supply chain manager of agricultural industrial and energy products Noble Group Limited announced that its 2006 revenues increased to USD 13.8 billion and gross profits rose to USD 492 million. Its net profits amounted to USD134.5 million representing a 14.9% return on average shareholder equity.

Its energy segment revenues rose by 34% YoY to USD 6.2 billion and continue to represent Noble's largest business segment accounting for 45% of Group revenues Gross profits were up 83% to a record USD 258 million with broad contributions from our clean fuel coal and coke and carbon credit businesses. Agricultural segment reported 2006 revenues up by 30% to more than USD 4 billion a 30% YoY increase over 2005. Logistic and metals, minerals and ore segment also performed with strong results.

Mr Richard Elman CEO said that "Since 2005 we have been realizing steady growth in focusing on building our business to create a long term sustainable platform with the result of 2006 success strategy.

Nucor Crops subsidiary Nucor Steel Birmingham Inc announced that it is planning to establish a distribution center in Central Florida and has purchased a 12 acre site in Poinciana Office and Industrial Park for USD 960,800 from Avatar Properties Inc.

Mr Del Benzenhafer sales manager for the Florida district division of Nucor Steel Birmingham said that The Company plans to build a 2,000 square foot office on the property later this spring. The remaining property will be used for outdoor storage of steel bar products shipped by rail cars from manufacturing sites at Birmingham in Alabama, Darlington in South Carolina and Jackson in Mississippi.

Charlotte based Nucor Corp is the largest steel recycler in the US with more than 20 manufacturing facilities and 11 bar mills in the US. Its posted net sales of USD 14.8 billion for 2006 and net income of USD 1.76 billion.

Exxaro Resources plans to increase its coal production to 78 million tonne by 2014 for increasing supplies to both the high value thermal coal export and metallurgical markets.

Mr Con Fauconnier CEO of Exxaro while announcing companys first annual results emphasized that Exxaro would never become as big an exporter as the South African coal majors but would maintain its focus on the high value metallurgical market.

Exxaro resulted from the unbundling of Kumba Resources through a black economy empowered transaction with Eyesizwe Coal. Exarro's current total production is 33 million tonnes. Exxaro has several expansions to its coal operations underway.

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing announced that it increased the selling price by JPY 2,000 to JPY 3,000 for the steel products except for plate and galvanizing steel for March orders.

Tokyo Steel increased the H beam price to JPY 77,000 per tonnes after the hikes for 3 months in a row and increases the hot rolled coil price to JPY 70,000 through the 2 months consecutive hikes. These prices are more than JPY 5,000 to JPY 7,000 higher than prices of domestic integrated steel makers.

African Rainbow Minerals, which has two 50% controlled manganese mines in the Northern Cape at Nchwaning and Gloria, has urged companies planning to mine manganese in South Africa to work with existing producers to exploit extra capacity and not build new mines as the local industry would suffer. BHP Billiton, which had a 60% stake in its Hotazel manganese mine in the Northern Cape, had also urged for cooperation rather than new mines.

Mr Jan Steenkamp CEO of ARM Ferrous while speaking to Mining Weekly Online said that New manganese mines in the Northern Cape could cause major problems for South African producers in maintaining their profitability in the global market. South African producers already have high transportation costs as compared with other global operations.

Mr Steenkamp stressed that it would make more sense to exploit this additional capacity rather than to build new mines. He said that We seldom produce 2.2 million tonnes per year but we have between 3 million tonnes per year and 3.5 million tonnes per year of spare capacity. Both BHP Billiton and ourselves have got spare capacity on our current mines.

Last year Russian firm Renova indicated that it might open a manganese mine in South Africa, as well as a new smelter. Recently a Chinese company said that it also planned to open a new mine in the Northern Cape. Black economic empowerment group Kalahari Resources also had plans for a new manganese mine in the area.

The Northern Cape is home to an estimated 80% of global manganese reserves.

Peruvian zinc miner Volcan announced that it posted net earnings of PEN 759 million (USD 238 million) in 2006 up by soaring over profits of PEN 66.5 million in 2005.

Volcan said that its net sales brought in PEN 2.35 billion in 2006 as compared to PEN 1.04 billion soles in 2005 and its operating profit increased to PEN 1.26 billion while costs increased to PEN 864 million.

Volcan produces zinc, lead, copper and silver from its Yauli, Cerro de Pasco, Chungar and Vinchos units in central Peru.

BlueScope Steel announced that it has restarted a software replacement program that will eliminate old green screen technology throughout the company with an estimated cost of up to AUD 60 million.

BlueScope Steel said the company has switched on new enterprise software at its flagship Port Kembla Steelworks in NSW and is planning to begin introducing the new technology to its Australian manufacturing markets business this year.

The project, in planning and development since 2003, will replace the company's ageing information systems with software from German vendor SAP. Systems integrator Accenture and outsourcer CSC Australia are understood to be providing application development and installation services for the software overhaul.

The software installations are part of a massive project to replace legacy applications BlueScope inherited when it was spun off from parent BHP Billiton as BHP Steel in 2002.

Germany's second biggest utility RWE AG announced that its named Mr Juergen Grossmann to replace Mr Harry Roels CEO after asset sales and job cuts sparked criticism by some shareholders. Mr Grossmann the head of German steelmaker Georgsmarienhuette Holding GmbH will join the company from November 1st 2007 and take over as new CEO on February 1st 2008.

Georgsmarienhtte Group of Companies today represents more than 43 companies in Germany and Austria in thirteen business units.

Shareholders including German municipalities rejected a 2003 plan by Mr Roels to cut 1,000 jobs and combine divisions. All but one of the 46 city and regional governments that owned RWE shares at the time voted against the 2003 reorganization plan. But Mr Roels sold units including Thames Water Plc and trimmed jobs with the support of other investors.

West Perth based nickel producer Jubilee Mines NL has announced a AUD 107.6 million net profit after tax for July to December 2006 period up by 362% YoY. Its revenue of AUD 244.9 million during this period is up by 186% YoY. The results include an AUD 11.8 million write off of exploration and evaluation expenditure.

The increase in profitability was predominantly attributable to upward movements in the nickel price, with positive flow through adjustments accruing to the pipeline system for concentrate shipments to Inco Limited.

Mr Kerry Harmanis executive chairman of Jubilee said that The record result reflected a combination of better than expected production and record nickel prices. The first half of 2006-07 had been successful from both an exploration and development perspective, with excellent progress achieved with new mine developments at Tapinos Prospero and Alec Mairs 2 and significant additions made to the Company's nickel resource inventory.

He said that "During the period, some 108,000 tonnes of nickel metal was added to our total resource inventory, including 48,000 tonnes of high grade ore attributable to the Prospero resource upgrade and the initial resource estimate for Alec Mairs 2, and 60,000 tonnes attributable to the upgrade in the Anomaly 1 low-grade disseminated deposit."

UKs Landore Resources Ltd reported a resource estimate of 14,300 tonnes of nickel from its Junior Lake project in Canada. Landore Resources estimated that the project also included 2,100 tonnes of copper with a reasonable 0.2% nickel cut off grade. Drilling at the project is scheduled to begin in mid March.

Mr Bill Humphries chairman of Landore Resources Ltd said that It is Landore's aim to take full advantage of the favorable conditions by advancing the Junior Lake Nickel Project to production as rapidly as possible.

Subiaco based nickel explorer Gryphon Minerals Ltd has announced that it signed a JV agreement with Minara Resources Ltd for exploration of its Collurabbie and Mount Rankin projects.

Under the agreement, Minara Resources will fund USD 5.5 million in exploration costs over four years to earn 70% equity in nickel and base metals, and 60% on all other commodities in either project area. The company will earn no equity in the projects until all the money has been spent.

Minara Resources must find USD 1.5 million within the first 12 months before they can withdraw from the JV, paying USD 750,000 to continue in the second year and USD 500,000 in the third. Minara will also reimburse Gryphon a further USD 600,000 for previous expenditure.

Gryphon will remain the manager and operator of the projects until a decision to mine has been made.

State Property Fund of Ukraine announced that it put up for sale a 0.17% stake in Mittal Steel Kryviy Rih on the Kiev International Stock Exchange and the Ukrainian Stock Exchange.

Australian nickel miner Mincor Resources announced that it posted consolidated pre tax profit of AUD 52.6 million during July to December 2006. Mincor's consolidated sales doubled YoY to AUD 145.4 million from AUD 78.1 million in 2005.

Mincor's nickel concentrate production volume rose marginally during July to December 2006. Production of nickel in concentrate was 6,888 million tonnes compared with 6,754 million tonnes of nickel in concentrate in the same months of 2005.

Concentrate production at Mariners Nickel Mine doubled and the ore grade improved, while three other mines saw falling nickel content in the concentrates.