Petrojam is a limited company jointly owned by PDVCaribe, a subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) which owns 40 percent of its shares, and the Petroleum Company of Jamaica (PCJ). Petrojam was established in 1982 when the Government of Jamaica purchased the Kingston Refinery from Esso, which had built and operated it since 1964. Put simply, Petrojam's job is to supply refined products to the people and businesses of Jamaica.

Until as recently as 2010 it appeared that all southern African countries had to offer in terms of oil and gas were scattered pockets of natural gas off the coasts of South Africa and Mozambique. The event that changed this perception was the discovery of a potential 500 trillion cubic feet of gas across South Africa and Mozambique, in addition to an estimated eleven billion barrels of oil in Namibia.

From you position within the IFC, what is your perception of the global mining sector today?

Financial Directors with high blood pressures should look away now. Project management in most organisations is run by people who have no notion of pulling the plug on something that is certain to end in failure. In fact many of them suffer from what we call Project Mastermind Disorder: they’ve started, so they’ll finish. No matter what the cost.

The US powerhouse owns a number of international recognised brands including the HBO and CNN television networks and the Warner Brothers movie company.

In the last twelve months’ Time Warner’s film unit has been boosted by the success of the likes of the latest Superman movie, Man of Steel and the cinematic update of The Great Gatsby. Meanwhile its coverage of NBA Basketball in the US helped to drive cable television advertising up by eleven percent.

With a total of eleven branches spanning the length and breadth of Chile, Dartel Electricidad is dedicated to the distribution and marketing of some of the most famous and prestigious national and international electrical brands. These brands and solutions meet the high, medium and low voltage needs of Dartel’s customers within the industrial, fishing, construction, engineering, telecommunications and mining sectors.

Junior mining companies are feeling the chill these days, and have been under pressure for over a year, so it is heartening to find one whose neat footwork has turned the situation to its advantage. Over the past year Argex has advanced its plan to convert its focus from mining to production of Titanium Dioxide (TiO2), a commodity that is sure to grow in demand as the world emerges from recession, because its sales in any particular market shadow GDP with uncanny accuracy.

In addressing the media, Mining Minister Hernan de Solminihac revealed this projection, a figure that represents an eight percent increase since the last estimate was given in November 2012. The increased number has been driven by the incorporation of nine projects valued at $3.6 billion and another 20 initiatives that have updated their own investment amounts.