While mining companies are no strangers to volatility, 2013 stands out as a year of particularly significant shifts. Slower demand out of China and ongoing economic weakness in other parts of the world pushed down commodity prices and threatened to tip certain commodities into over-supply. Despite this softness, both operational and capital costs continued to rise and governments in many jurisdictions continued to demand outsized contributions from the natural resources sector.

The report predicts that employment in the mining sector will rise by 7.4 percent over the next four years, with the oil and gas sector providing the largest number of new jobs. However, with this comes the need for new skills to be adopted amongst the workforce.

The deal, estimated to have cost Intel around $25 million, will see the chipmaker’s logo appear on the inside of players’ shirts. This means that the Intel logo will be on display when players lift their shirts in celebration of scoring a goal. The partnership will also see Intel providing technology to the clubs players and its coaching staff.

The measure opens up state-run oil fields to foreign investment, allowing private firm to explore and extract oil and gas alongside the state-run company Pemex, and subsequently claim a share of any profits made.

Following the Senate vote President Enrique Pena Nieto wrote on Twitter that it was "a significant decision for Mexico". Mr Pena Nieto said it was necessary to modernise Mexico's energy sector and increase oil production, which has dropped from 3.4 million barrels per day in 2004 to the current rate of 2.5 million barrels per day.

It was in 2011 that Range Resources entered into the oil market of Trinidad. A listed oil and gas exploration, development and production company already boasting interests in Puntland, Somalia, Texas, USA and the Republic of Georgia, Range’s arrival on the Caribbean’s southernmost island nation was instigated through the acquisition of 100 percent interest in three production licences, Morne Diablo, South Quarry and Beach Marcelle.

As it reported pre-tax profits of £98.5 million to 31 October, 2013, a rise from the £96.9 million it recorded at the same time in 2012, the company was keen to emphasis the growth potential of its megabus service throughout the UK, mainland Europe and the US.

Stagecoach chief executive, Martin Griffiths, commented: "We see significant potential to expand our presence in the US, where we already operate in 40 states. We are also considering opportunities to roll-out our premium day and overnight services to new locations."

In business - new isn’t always better. New technologies might appear attractive, but they require time and imagination before they realise their full potential. The best business innovations don’t come from innovating for innovation’s sake nor are they always borne out of wild or prolific ideas – they come from strategic thinking and applied process. They come from assessing existing technologies and information across industries and business functions and matching them with core competencies.

A family owned and run business, Industrias Correagua was founded almost 60 years ago by one Juan Amado. From its inception the main activities of the company included the fabrication of steel products such as roofing material, gas tanks, and speciality projects such as silos, large tanks, flagpoles and bridges, as well as construction. What has remained consistent over the last six decades is the company’s on-going desire to be innovative, utilise new technologies, and identify and harness the potential of new and emerging products.

In more than two decades since the first wind farm project was realised in 1992 at Bellacorrick, County Mayo, wind energy’s contribution to Ireland’s electricity supply has steadily risen to the point where it had installed 1.7GW of capacity by the end of 2012.

With the country now tasked with achieving its national targets for renewable energy by 2020, which calls for 40 percent of its electricity to come from renewable sources, an estimated 5,500 to 6,000MW of wind generation is required.

Located in the Canadian Shield of northern Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada, the Athabasca Basin is the world’s leading source of high grade uranium and currently supplies approximately 20 percent of all that used across the planet. Covering some 100,000 square kilometres of Saskatchewan, and a small portion of Alberta, the surface of the basin consists of sandstone sediment varying from 100 to 1,000 metres in depth. It is at the base of this sandstone that uranium ore has been mostly found since it was first discovered in the region in the 1940s.