Content about Vale

Anglo-Swiss mining giant Xstrata is said to be close to acquiring Drummond, Colombia’s second biggest coal miner, according to a report in UK newspaper the Sunday Times.

It is thought that family-owned Drummond could be sold for around $8 billion (£5 billion). The company was put up for sale last year.

A number of other mining giants, including Rio Tinto, Vale, Vedanta Resources and Essar Energy, are thought to also have been interested in Drummond.

Sharing the wealth
Vale, the world’s second largest mining company, will be opening a new coal mine in Mozambique next year. Ben Sansom lifts the veil on corporate social responsibility and discovers the efforts Vale is making to ensure the benefits percolate through to the local community.
Mozambique is one of the poorest nations on earth. It was ravaged by a brutal civil war for 15 years after its independence from Portugal; but the country has made huge efforts since peace was achieved in 1992 to improve the national economy and boost its productivity. Among the many successful strategies for economic development has been the privatisation of a large swathe of state owned businesses and the attraction of considerable foreign investment into the country. As a result, Mozambique has enjoyed what the World Bank described as a “blistering pace of economic growth”, averaging around eight per cent increase in GDP per annum between 1994 and 2006.