USA and Canada

The recipients of the prestigious 2014 Projects of the Year Awards were declared during the 6th North American Strategic Infrastructure Leadership Forum in Washington, DC. The awards were selected from an initial list of 400 projects valued at $370 billion.

Chile is one of the most stable, competitive and fastest growing economies in the world, and certainly holds that position within Latin America. In 2013 Chile’s maintained its positive recent growth rate, recording 4.1 percent increase in its GDP – just a little lower than last year but still an enviable figure. Much of that growth has been driven by the country’s mineral resources, with the state mining company Codelco accounting for a third of the nation's economy.

With 22 years at Toyota behind her, working up from assembly manufacturing supervisor to VP of Manufacturing Cheryl Jones has nothing to prove when it comes to the knowledge of lean systems. However that is not where she first realized that waste is often endemic, always bad for business and ultimately unfair. That came in a very different industry, when she was working as a checkout operator for Krogers, the American supermarket chain.

Since we last looked at Greenland Minerals and Energy A/S (GME), a subsidiary of Perth (Australia) based Greenland Minerals and Energy Ltd, a great deal of progress has been made. To recap, GME entered the Greenland scene in 2007 when it acquired a majority interest in an exploration licence covering the northern Ilimaussaq Complex, subsequently increasing that to 100 percent.

Speaking in June Leni Gas & Oil (LGO) chairman David Lenigas said: "Our Trinidad operations will do 2,000 barrels per day (bpd). Not might, - will." The company is one of the more salient success stories in the Australian entrepreneur and former Lonrho chairman’s portfolio. And the market is backing him: LGO’s shares on London’s AIM market have risen from under a penny in November to over 4-pence at the time of writing.

Rare earth elements (REEs) continue to be a hot topic. This group of 17 chemically similar elements crucial to the manufacture of many hi-tech products is causing international supply headaches. China currently produces about 90 percent of the world’s rare earths and produces more than 70 percent of the world’s rare earth magnets - neodymium in particular is used to make smaller, more efficient and more powerful magnets used in loudspeakers and computer hard drives.

With a total business volume of DKK 2.74 billion, The BANK of Greenland is only a small financial institution internationally. In Greenland, however, the bank is the largest bank and the only physically available full service bank. With a strong local mooring and more than 45 years of close cooperation with Greenlandic industries and public institutions, the bank takes the absolute lead as a partner for businesses in the Greenland mineral resources industry.

The finest rubies are rarer and more valuable than diamonds and for many the icy brilliance of the latter is no match for the colour, warmth and romance of the former. Their prices are on the rise too: the record of just under $275,000 per carat set in 2005 has since risen to over $550,000. The world’s richest source of fine rubies, Burma, is still under an embargo and the market is hungry for gemstones of that quality, particularly if they can be certified ethical.

The Cecon Pride is a multipurpose offshore construction vessel constructed for the Norwegian oilfield services company Cecon.  Davie’s Chief Executive Officer, Alan Bowen, commented, “This ship is the most complex commercial vessel to have ever been built at a North American shipyard. It’s also the largest vessel built in Canada in over 25 years, since Davie held the previous record.”

“Let’s put it this way, junior miners have had quite the challenging time over the last two years.” Those are the words of John Gravelle, Partner and Global Mining Leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), when questioned about what life has been like for the junior mining sector, both in Canada and beyond.