Mining and Exploration

JW Resources has acquire Appolo’s coal mining operations through the creation of its own subsidiary, Middlesboro Mining Inc. Its acquisition includes approximately 33,000 acres of land containing an estimated 43 million tonnes of proven and probably, high quality thermal and industrial coal reserves in the Central Appalachian coal basin.

Having previously worked as a professional exploration geologist in Eastern Europe, Australia, and Central and Southern Africa for a number of leading mining and exploration companies, including Tesla, KGHM, Rio Tinto and Caledonia, it was in 1999 that Julian D. Green founded GeoQuest.

I think it is fair to say that Julie Shuttleworth recognises a great mining development when she sees one. For 13 years Shuttleworth was a part of Barrick Gold, working at various sites in Tanzania and at its Granny Smith mine in Western Australia where, in her role as general manager, she led a team of around 700 people.

Aggreko was founded in the Netherlands in the early 1960s to provide temporary power generation to local companies. In 1973 it moved to the UK, establishing its headquarters at Dumbarton in Scotland, the first step in an expansion programme that has brought it to where it is today, present in 47 countries and employing around 6,000 people. The London Stock Exchange-listed company, a member of the FTSE-100 index, provides power and temperature control solutions to customers who need them either very quickly, or for a short or indeterminate length of time.

Political uncertainty and the serious lack of infrastructure development have gone hand in hand to hold back the development of mineral resources in the DRC. We frequently cover gold mining projects in both West and East Africa that have been in development since the mid 1980s, however though it's among the richest natural resource countries in Africa, the DRC seems to have lagged badly.

Discovered in 1866, the Mesabi Iron Range is the chief deposit of iron ore in the United States. Located in northeast Minnesota, within a jurisdiction which has long boasted a track record of successful mineral developments and operations, it is a vast deposit of the mineral that was extensively mined throughout the early part of the 20th Century through to the late 1960s, when natural ore reserves were depleted.

When production begins, the Sierra Gorda mine will process 110,000 tons of ore daily, producing 120,000 tons of copper per year. In addition, the project will be one of the largest molybdenum producers in the world, averaging about 50 million lbs. of molybdenum production each year during the first years of the mine’s life.

When Rod Webster established his company Weatherly in 2005 he and his partners had been casting around for that elusive beast, a company-making project. When some assets he had acquired in Zambia turned out not to be it he shifted his attention to Namibia, acquiring the assets of a struggling local copper producer called Ongopolo in 2006. In July that year Weatherly plc was admitted to London’s AIM market, and since then has been focused on Namibia.

Nobody’s perfect. What quality or ability do you wish you had?
I wish I could sing in tune (and I am sure many other people wish that as well!).

What is the best business book you have ever read, and why?
The Concise Communicator, by Clive Simpkins. It’s a small book, with great practical tips about communicating, presenting and public speaking. I did a training session with Clive when I was working in Africa and he has even stayed in touch since.

Vale's Clydach Refinery, one of the largest in Europe, has become the first company in the UK and only the second in Europe over in the 25 years since the awards were inaugurated, to be awarded the prize, dubbed the "Nobel Prize of Manufacturing" by Business Week.