Madagascar Development

Top officials from ExxonMobil, the world's biggest oil company, opened an operation in Madagascar on Friday. Exxon is ramping up exploration on the world's fourth largest island, where it thinks its leases off the northwest coast could hold as much as 7 to 10 billion barrels of oil. The company plans to start drilling its first exploratory well later this year or in early 2007, which would be the first-ever deepwater well to be drilled off Madagascar. "Before a well is drilled, we'll have no idea of the outcome. (They are) wild cat wells," Tim Cejka, head of ExxonMobil Exploration Company, told journalists at the company's new office in Antananarivo. Cejka told Reuters the chances of finding economically recoverable reserves were in the 10 to 20 percent range but still worth the risk given the enormous potential. For Madagascar's government, keen to attract investment on the island of 17 million, three quarters of whom live on less than a dollar a day, the

MAHITSIARONGANA, 17 January (IRIN) - President Marc Ravalomanana's government has embarked on an ambitious national effort to protect Madagascar's remaining biodiversity while simultaneously reducing poverty and promoting rural development. In September 2003 he announced his commitment to triple Madagascar's protected areas in five years at the World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa. Christened "the Durban Vision", the plan would increase the country's protected habitats from 1.7 to 6 million hectares - or from 3 to 10 percent of the Indian Ocean nation's surface area. Despite being renowned for its globally unique biodiversity, Madagascar has seen its forests reduced to only 10 percent of their original cover. With deforestation continuing at an annual rate of 2,000 km2 - largely to meet the livelihood needs of expanding rural populations - this protection pledge may have come just in time. A three-day walk separates Mahitsiarongana village in Madag

He just knows that the precious metal is worth enough to justify him spending eight hours a day breaking rocks and washing clay in stagnant brown puddles in Madagascar. "I really don't know what the vahaza (white people) do with gold, but I think it has something to do with money," he says, as the sun flickers off his latest discovery. "Or maybe they make jewellery?" Though largely unexplored, mining experts think the Indian Ocean island has big untapped deposits of gold, platinum, sapphires, rubies, diamonds and emeralds. Each year, thousands leave their villages to dig for gold and precious stones in a country where three quarters of the 17 million-strong population live on less than a dollar a day. An increasing number of international mineral exploration companies are also setting up operations on the world's fourth largest island. Interest has been boosted by soaring gold prices, which hit a 25-year high of $550.75 last week. There are obstacles: analys

Note: All U.S. markets are closed Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. While PPI came in more than double what was expected, Core PPI came in less than expected and tamed inflation fears. For the year, PPI rose 5.4% and Core PPI rose 1.7%. The gain in Retail Sales was attributed almost entirely to gains in autos and gas. Business Inventories were also driven by autos. Gold fell down near $545 in Asia and held mostly slightly lower in London and early New York trade, but a surge a little after 10AM EST rocketed the price above $555 to lead gold to close near its highs at a new near-25 year high. Gold last traded above $555 on January 22nd, 1981, leaving gold about 1 week away from technically accomplishing 25 year high status. Silver traded modestly lower in Asia before finding small gains in London, but it then dropped to around $8.90 in early New York trade before it surged higher with gold and ended with a nice gain to close just 10 cents from its 18 and ½ year hig

Several new technologies that convert ocean waves into electric power have appeared at test installations off the coasts of Ireland, Scotland, the Orkney Islands and Portugal. Technology that can convert ocean wave energy into electric power is still in its early prototype stage of development and its cost per kilowatt is high. As the technology evolves and is developed further over the next several years, its capital cost and long-term maintenance cost could likely decrease. Ocean wave energy is an indirect form of solar thermal energy that heats large masses of land and large expanses of ocean at different rates, thereby causing winds to blow over several thousand square miles of ocean surface and deliver energy in the form of ocean waves to coastal regions. Throughout most of the world, ocean wave energy is diffuse. There are a few of locations where a variety of factors contribute to higher energy levels in ocean waves at select locations. These factors include strong winds blowing

Donors have approved $125 million in aid to Madagascar to reform its ailing state energy company, burdened by rising fuel costs and huge debts, the government has said. Donors met Madagascan officials in Paris this week to discuss a plan to reform Jirama, the wholly state-owned energy and water company which has several times been rescued from bankruptcy by the World Bank. In a statement handed to local press late on Thursday, the government said donors had finally approved the plan. "Our partners, taking account of the government's efforts, have affirmed the urgency of the plan to redress Jirama in the short term and are ready to contribute funds to putting it into action," said the statement. Measures for solving Jirama's financial woes include in the short-term raising prices and catching electricity thieves, and in the long-term moving away from expensive, petrol-based generators. Jirama says about 20 percent of its total electricity production is lost to fraud. F

Majescor Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:MAJ - News) Majescor wholly owned subsidiary, Tropic Diamonds Inc., is pleased to announce it has entered into an agreement with a Malagasy partner concerning the acquisition of a gold property consisting of two permits in Madagascar. The permit holder have granted to Tropic, for a small cash consideration, the right to perform exploration and assessment work on its property over the next nine (9) months. Pending positive results of this work, the mining titleholder agrees to sell and transfer to Tropic the two permits, for the sum of CAN$7,500 in cash. In the event a mine is developed, Tropic shall pay a net smelter royalty (NSR) of 1%, which may be purchased at any time for CAN$100,000. The property, located in northern Madagascar, shows a prospective geological setting for copper-gold mineralization. The Daraina zone is one of the rare regions in Madagascar with low-grade metamorphic conditions (greenschist). This series, interpreted as a calc-al

The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) declared Saturday that it will sign a loan agreement with Madagascar for KD 3.6 million (USD 12 million). A press release for KFAED said the loan would contribute in financing a hydroelectric station that aims at meeting the growing demand for this kind of energy. It added that the project also aims at reducing the cost of the power energy production. This would be the fourth KAFAED loan to Madagascar, where total loans reached KD 11.4 million, in addition to a technical aid worth KD 130,000 Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)