Continental Tire the Americas held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new plant in Sumter, South Carolina today.

Attended by state and local governmental officials, the ceremony marked the beginning of the construction process, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2013.

By early 2014, the plant will manufacture passenger and light truck tires to meet the increasing demand for Continental and General brand tires from both aftermarket business and automotive manufacturers.

Drinks maker William Grant & Sons is investing €35 million into a new distillery in Ireland for the production of Tullamore Dew whiskey.

The new distillery is to be built on a 58-acre site in Tullamore, Co. Offaly. The location of the facility is close to the site where the whiskey was originally made, which closed in 1954. Work on the new site is expected to be completed by the end of 2014.

Sumitomo Corp. of America (SCOA) is to become a 50-50 equity partner in two large-scale wind farms Duke Energy Renewables is building in Kansas.

Today’s announcement revealed that SCOA, part of Tokyo-based Sumitomo Corp, is buying a 50 percent stake in the 131-megawatt (MW) Cimarron II Windpower Project in Gray County and the 168-MW Ironwood Windpower Project in Ford County. Construction of both wind farms will be completed later this year.

Indonesia has 17,000 islands and though PT Leighton Contractors Indonesia (LCI) works on just a few of those, logistics are a challenge. Mining Indonesian coal destined for China and India may be part of its core business; but diversity is LCI’s second name.

Richard Beazley, managing director of Peak Resources, talks to Gay Sutton about the discovery of a world class rare earths mineral deposit in Tanzania and how the company is transitioning from exploration to mining.

This is the sort of discovery that most geologists go into mining for, and the anticipation is palpable at Australian exploration company Peak Resources. On 29 February, Peak announced its first maiden resource at Ngualla in south-west Tanzania.

Otis Elevator Company Saudi Arabia has won six contracts to supply and install elevators and escalators to different buildings in the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The contract is to supply and install 263 elevators, including 10 double-deck elevators, and 90 escalators.

Stonegate Agricom Ltd. today announced the results of its pre-feasibility study for the development of an underground mine in its Paris Hills Phosphate Project in Idaho, USA.

The study projects production of 10 million tonnes of direct-ship, concentrate-quality phosphate rock (with no beneficiation required).

The report suggests total project financing requirements for development of $134.3 million, which includes contingency of $16.1 million and working capital of $6.5 million, with a cash operating cost of $72.99 per tonne of saleable product.

Dennis Stearns identifies five potential game changers that will have an enormous impact on how we live, work and invest in the next ten years.