Australia and NZ

GEG’s fourth acquisition in Australia cements the country as its largest market outside of the UK.

In taking on Cunningham Construction from its New Zealand parent company GEG has not only captured the expertise of a prominent resource management provider to Australia’s mining sector, specialising in scaffolding and rigging, but also added an additional A$13 million in turnover to its A$100 million Australian portfolio.

Rio has said it will receive a total of $1.02 billion from the sale of the mine in Queensland State, Australia, where the coal that is mined is burned to produce electricity. "The sale... will allow us to realise value for our shareholders as we continue optimising our portfolio," a Rio statement said. Rio say made a point of saying that it remained "committed to a long-term future in central Queensland" at its other mines.

That was the message delivered by Boasteel president He Wenbo to Australia’s Trade Minister Andrew Robb, on a visit to China.

Mr Robb, the first Coalition minister to visit China since the September election, said yesterday Baosteel president He Wenbo was positive about tax changes proposed by the new government. Mr Robb said the Baosteel chief was pleased with the Coalition's promise to roll back the carbon and mining taxes put in place by the previous Labor government.

The new Prime Minister of Australia, sworn in today, has pledged his government to abolish the country’s carbon tax, and within 100 days to introduce legislation to abolish the mining tax that has been blamed for damaging jobs and investment.

However the mining community can’t breathe easily quite yet. When Labor introduced the mining tax on 1 July 2012, it also extended onshore the petroleum tax and imposed the tax on Australia’s largest gas exporting facility the North West Shelf LNG project: that measure will be retained.

Balancing risks against opportunities is always a difficult call, and it is a problem that ASX listed Middle Island Resources takes very seriously. That is why the company, which was established to develop gold prospects in West Africa, has focused on countries that have an ‘acceptable’ level of sovereign risk, and in which there has been some precedent of successful mining.

Located 23 kilometres south of Perth, on the coast of Western Australia, is the Australian Marine Complex (AMC), the Southern Hemisphere’s premier integrated marine industrial facility. A world-class centre for excellence in manufacturing, fabrication, assembly, maintenance and technology development, it is home to more than 150 businesses. These businesses are separated into four main precincts; fabrication, support industry, technology and shipbuilding.

Mr Holland’s words follow Gold Fields deal to purchase three mines in the Yilgarn South region of Western Australia from Barrick for $300 million. The three mines in question -Granny Smith, Darlot and Lawlers – produced 450,000 ounces of gold in 2012 and reported 2.6-million ounces of gold reserves plus 1.9-million ounces of gold resources at the end of December.

The bank made a net profit of A$7.7 billion ($7 billion) for the year to 30 June, up 8 percent from the previous year. This impressive figure is the result of a combination of growing deposits and a higher margin between the rate of interest earned on loans and the rate paid out to savers.