Madagascar Development

It is always good to see a junior put one over a major and this has been done in classic style by Jubilee Platinum with BHP Billiton. Doubtless the people at BHP Billiton underestimated Colin Bird, chief executive of Jubilee Platinum, as he has a quiet style, but underneath that he is shrewd negotiator. The story dates back to the beginning of November when the two companies agreed to carry out a large scale helicopter VTEM geophysical survey over their adjacent properties in Madagascar. This was going to be paid for by BHP Billiton and the data would be shared. The idea was that this could lead to a joint venture over the combined property which is about 160 kms south east of Antananarivo. Jubilee’s Ambodilafa concessions covers a 20 kms long by 4kms wide mafic- ultramafic system. Before these concessions came into the hands of Jubilee some reconnaissance work was carried out in the late 1960s which intersected 93 metres of disseminated sulphides containing pyrrhotite, pen...

An exploration company that found a potentially huge titanium deposit in Madagascar has said it expects the 30-year project to cost $150 million, a fraction of Rio Tinto's $585 million mine opened last year. Madagascar Resources director Jules Leclezio said a feasibility study of the Toliara sands project in the southwest, which Kumba Resources has an option to buy outright, would be completed by the end of 2008. "We will need $150 million to finalise the project," Leclezio told journalists in Antananarivo on Tuesday. He added that this made it less costly than Rio Tinto's rival titanium mine, which will need a $585 million investment over its lifespan. Last year Rio Tinto announced it would go ahead with its concession to mine ilmenite, the ore of titanium dioxide -- a white pigment used to colour paint, plastics and toothpaste -- in Taolagnaro, southeast Madagascar. Mining experts say the world's fourth largest island, though largely unexplored, has big untapped...

Whoever thought it could happen? The world's most populous country, with what seemed like a bottomless pool of low-skilled workers, is experiencing a labor shortage in its big manufacturing regions. David Barboza of The New York Times reports a shortage of workers at hundreds of Chinese factories, particularly in Guangdong and Fujian, the two provinces at the heart of China's export-driven economy. At first glance, the result looks like a union leader's dream come true: Wages are going up, and workers are demanding - and getting - better working conditions and benefits. Minimum wages, which averaged $58 to $74 a month, excluding benefits, in 2004, have climbed about 25 percent over the last three years in Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai. Wages at larger factories operated by multinationals, which are typically $100 to $200 a month, are also rising. But it is a far more complicated story than that, a textbook case of how the global economy has developed. During the last 100...

Washington -- American magazine reporter Eduardo Cue believes promoting democracy and good governance is an exercise best done through the exchange of ideas and experiences, a practice he recently put to the test in the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), the Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa) and Madagascar. REACHING OUT TO A NEW GENERATION OF JOURNALISTS In Madagascar, Cue ran media workshops March 3-11 with more than 225 journalists, students and media owners participating. His visit was timely, the U.S. Embassy in Antananarivo, Madagascar, reported, because "a new generation of journalists, looking to emulate the United States by breaking with embedded poor or corrupt practices, wants to move Madagascar toward participation in a global economy as a credible democracy." The highlight of Cue's trip to Madagascar was a three-day "train-the-trainers" workshop for 17 leaders of media associations, which he conducted in French. The exercise focused on basic jou...

Following are UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's remarks to the Academie Malgache, in Antananarivo, Madagascar, 17 March: Thank you for that warm welcome. Thank you as well for the honour you have bestowed on me today. It is a privilege to be admitted as a full member of this highly respected academy. I know I join some very distinguished men and women from many realms. I take this recognition as an expression of your support not only for me, but for the United Nations in general. Such support is especially encouraging at a time when we are striving hard to adapt and renew the Organization to better serve the world's peoples. Let me also say what a pleasure it is to be visiting Madagascar at this time. To see this country's renowned cultural and natural riches is a real treat. I have had very good talks with the President, the President of the Senate, the President of the National Assembly and Prime Minister. I also met representatives of the opposition. In just a short time...

Former Sen. Arthur Brown of Utah is a footnote to history — more interesting than most, though, because a woman claiming he had fathered two of her children gunned him down in a hotel room in 1906. Brown's entry is among the 12,000 or so — from Aandahl to Zwach — in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005, the definitive reference book about federal lawmakers, now online for the first time. ADVERTISEMENT The entries in the directory's 16th edition, the first update since 1989, were written by congressional historians to provide basic information — dates, places and positions — rather than personal stories. Occasionally, though, startling tales appear amid the plain facts. Jeremiah Haralson, once an Alabama representative, is listed as having been killed by "wild beasts" near Denver around 1916. He was one of at least six former slaves who served in either the House or the Senate. Michigan Rep. William Wedemeyer drowned in 1913 after he fel...

China's government is trying to boost public interest in its figurehead parliament and its companion advisory body by setting up Web logs for members as they meet this week. Called "bo ke" in Chinese, blogs are popular with young people despite strict censorship rules. In one posting, National People's Congress delegate Zhou Hongyu wrote that serving in the legislature is a way to "fulfill my duty and be a better deputy." "I hope to collect the wishes of the people, listen to their will and experience the people's lives," wrote Zhou, a representative from the southern province of Hunan who advocates education reform. The patriotically named "Strong Country Blog" is run by the People's Daily, the newspaper of the ruling Communist Party. "Its open attitude and attention to the expression of opinion reflects the voice of the people," says a handbook given out by the People's Daily. The blogs are housed at http://blog.pe...

PAN AFRICAN MINING CORP. (TSX-V: PAF) (the "Company") is delighted to announce that it has now received full permitting to commence exploration and development of prospective uranium deposits in the first two of four zones delineated in its Joint Venture Agreement with L'Office des Mines Nationales et des Industries Strategiques ("OMNIS"), a Malagasy State agency. An aggregate of 10 full Research Permits or Permis Recherches were granted to the Company at this time, covering 404 Squares or Carres, each of which is 6.25 sq. km. The area presently under license is now 2525 sq. km., with other permits pending. In addition to the Permis Recherches, Environmental Permits on Forms PEE-RIM and PEE-RIS were granted to the Company in order to cover all anticipated drilling, trenching, pitting, road-building, camp establishment and other exploration activities presently contemplated in the initial phases of exploration. Eight Permis covering 377 Carres or an aggregate of ...

Mines and Energy Minister, Olivier Donat Andriamahefamparany, said Madagascar would try to learn from the poor experiences of other African mining and petrol hotspots. "Mining has not got a good record in developing countries. That's something we want to change," he told Reuters. "We are taking lessons from other countries in Africa." The Indian Ocean Island's mining sector is currently tiny, consisting of a few small chrome, graphite and sapphire mines, but officials say that is set to change. Rio Tinto, the world's second largest diversified miner, last year confirmed it would go ahead with a $775 million titanium project in southern Madagascar. The company hopes to start shipping titanium ore out by 2008. Canadian company Dynatec plans to build a $2.25 billion nickel and colbalt mine in the east and Kumba Resources has a big titanium concession in the south. Exxon Mobil Corp, the world's biggest oil company, last month set up an office in Madagasc...

ONGC Ltd is exploring the possibilities of investing in oil sand extraction projects. Oil sands or tar sands, a mined product found mostly in Canada and Venezuela, are deposits of bitumen (a heavy black viscous oil), which is treated to produce crude oil. According to available estimates, the Alberta province of Canada holds the second biggest oil reserve after Saudi Arabia through its oil sand deposits. Though denying having taken up any specific investment proposal in this regard, ONGC sources confirmed that the company was exploring investment possibilities in oil sand. Notes were also exchanged on the issue between the Indian exploration and production major and its overseas joint venture ONGC Mittal Energy Ltd (OMEL). "We (ONGC) have been discussing about the possibilities of investing in oil sand projects for some time. However, we are yet to identify any proven technology for extracting oil from the same, without which no firm decision can be taken," an ONGC official t...

ExxonMobil is to open an office in the Madagascan capital as it prepares to start drilling in two recently acquired offshore blocks, according to local sources. Last July, ExxonMobil boosted its oil and gas presence in Madagascar by taking a 70% interest in two licenses held by UK's Sterling Energy. It expects to have production of around 60,000 b/d in the next 3-4 years, much of it coming from offshore blocks on the northwest coast.

Madagascar announced that it will auction 96 offshore plots of 2,000 square kilometres each for oil exploration from April until September. "With the rise in the price of oil, all the world's oil companies are interested in our exploration blocs, so we are going to put them out to tender," Elise Razaka, the head of the National Mines and Strategic Industries Bureau, told Agence France-Presse. Currently, 10 onshore and four offshore exploration blocs in Madagascar have been awarded following bilateral negotiations or restricted tenders. Companies involved include Exxon Mobil Corp and Vanco from the United States, Norway's Norsk Hydro, Vuna Energy Ltd from Mauritius and China's Sino Union Petroleum and Chemical. The west coast of Madagascar has been the scene of oil exploration for the last 40 years, but no viable deposits have been found. "We are still not sure that we have commercially exportably oil, but we are very close," said Razaka. Madagascar curre...

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)