USA and Canada

Encana Natural Gas Inc, one of North America's largest natural gas producers, today opened the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueling station in Louisiana.

Located at The Relay Station in Frierson, the station will serve the fueling needs of heavy duty truck fleets, but is also open for public use (to those with an LNG vehicle and proper safety training).

Brazil imports 50 percent of the phosphates it needs for agricultural production: MBAC has the ability to become the second largest domestic producer of single superphosphates within the next five years, with a valuable sideline in rare earth elements.

Another tale of “are they or aren’t they” emerged today in relation to a possible alliance of some kind between General Motors and PSA Peugeot Citroen.

It has been widely reported that the two car makers are talking to each other, and have been for some time, but at the time of writing neither company has confirmed this.

US-based Select Energy Services has entered the Canadian market with the completion of its purchase of WTR Transfer Services Ltd. (WTR).

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Select Energy Services provides engineered water solutions to the oil and gas industry, and well-site services to energy producers.

WTR performs water transfer services for the shale drilling industry in western Canada, specializing in high volume water transfer through a "no leak" water transfer system.

Caterpillar Inc. has selected Athens, Georgia as the location for a new facility to build small tractors and mini hydraulic excavators, bringing production back from Japan to the United States.

Best known as the home town of the rock band REM, Athens will soon be home to a state-of-the-art, one-million-square-foot facility expected to employ 1,400 people, with a potential of 2,800 extra jobs in the supply chain in the United States.

The total investment for opening the new facility is expected to be around $200 million.

A revitalized General Motors Co. today announced profits of $7.6 billion for the year ending 31 December 2011 after a strong performance in the US, but its European and South American operations are still losing money.

This figure represents a 62 percent increase over 2010 profits of $4.7 billion, despite a loss of $700 million across its Vauxhall/Opel plants in the UK and Germany—although this was an improvement over the 2010 loss of $1.3 billion in Europe.

Estrella Gold is a prospect generator company, focused on gold in Latin America and growing its inventory of gold resource ounces. CEO Keith Laskowski tells John O’Hanlon why he placed his 30 years’ experience in gold exploration at the service of a junior company.

Toronto-based exploration company Unigold is poised to begin an exciting phase of exploration and development in the Dominican Republic. CEO Andrew Cheatle talks to Gay Sutton about the latest gold discoveries.

The first phase of a luxury new residential block is rapidly rising from the ground in NoMa, the fastest growing neighborhood in Washington DC.Hosein Omidi-Shal, project manager at Paradigm Construction, explains how the work has been accelerated ahead of schedule by creative task assignment.

Paul Benson, CEO of junior Australian gold mining company, Troy Resources, talks to Gay Sutton about the challenges and rewards of low cost gold production.

There are not many gold mining companies, large or small, that have been able to deliver cash dividends to their shareholders 12 times over the last 12 years. Australia-based Troy Resources has not only achieved this, but continued to do so during 2008 when the world slipped into global recession. So what is the secret behind this impressive track record?