Australia and NZ

“I think it’s safe to say that business has changed dramatically over the last 18 months,” states Rainstorm Dust Control’s technical sales and marketing manager, Mason Trouchet, when I ask him what life has been like for the Australian company since we last featured them in September 2012.

Pioneer Resources are currently drill testing a 200 metre structure at the Kalpini South prospect, a move that is designed to extend the strong gold results that were returned in 2013. These results included ten metres at 6.38g/t gold, 15 metres at 2.93g/t and nine metres at 5.31g/t.

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.

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.

The sale, which will cost Vitol $2.6 billion, includes Shell’s refinery in Geelong, 870 service stations, its bulk fuels and chemicals unit, and part of its lubricants business. The move comes at a time when Shell is looking to dispose of various assets as part of its strategy to change the emphasis of the company in 2014.

Other recent disinvestments by Shell include the sale of refineries across Europe in the UK, Germany, France, Norway and the Czech Republic. The firm has also offloaded its downstream businesses in Egypt, Spain, Greece, Finland and Sweden.

The world’s largest mining company profited from improvements in its iron ore, coal and petroleum businesses, with profit from the former rising by 60 percent, powered by production from its Western Australia mines which produced a record of 108 million tonnes.

The announcement that Toyota will stop making cars in Australia in 2017, marks an end to the nation's car manufacturing sector. Last year, Ford and General Motors' Holden unit also announced plans to stop producing cars in Australia.

Around 2,500 Toyota workers will lose their jobs, while the loss of the wider automotive industry will put tens of thousands more jobs at risk.

The Perth waterfront has been an under-used asset, but now Western Australia’s capital city is finally making the most of it with the $2.6billion Elizabeth Quay project covering nearly ten hectares of prime riverfront land between Barrack and William streets in the heart of the city. The project will create a magnificent precinct featuring a newly dug 2.7 hectare inlet surrounded by a split level promenade, shops, cafés, restaurants and other exciting entertainment venues.

Rio Tinto is the first of the big diversified miners to report its annual production figures for 2013, which showed strong growth despite industry concerns of weakening Chinese demand for steel.

The Anglo-Australian mining giant produced 70.4 million tonnes of iron ore in the fourth quarter, a six percent increase on the same period in 2012. It comes at the same time that the company implements a series of cost cuts that has seen it reduce exploration costs alone by $1 billion.

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.