Mining and Exploration

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.

The two diamonds, the 162.02 carat type II diamond and the 161.31 carat type I, were both recovered from the company’s Letšeng mine in Lesotho at the end of January 2014 and sold for $11.1 million and $2.4 million respectively.

In a press release the company noted that the two rough diamonds both achieved top prices, in accordance with their respective colour, clarity and expected  polished yield, at Letšeng’s February tender.

BFL CANADA is a no-nonsense insurance brokerage and risk management firm, founded by Barry F Lorenzetti in 1987 and now the largest employee-owned and operated commercial insurance broker and consulting services firm in the country, with offices in nine major cities from Vancouver in the west to Halifax in the east. Though BFL is active in upward of 20 vertical business sectors, one of the most important of these is mining, mineral processing and exploration.

For many years tourism and agriculture have been the traditional drivers of economic growth for the Dominican Republic. However in more recent times a third pillar has been slowly emerging and developing and that is mining. Today the sector is a cornerstone of the country’s economic prosperity, with the mining industry’s contribution to its GDP rising by as much as 74 percent in 2011 alone.