KIMBERLEY Diamond Co NL has discovered encouraging – and sur-prising – concentrations of gems at shallow depth in the Ellendale pipes it is acquiring from the Rio Tinto subsidiary Argyle Diamonds.
THE offshore oil and gas fields of Western Australia have the potential to be of global import-ance, rivalling the Gulf of Mexico, according to Jim Bass, managing director of Apache Energy.
Two of the world’s leading technology companies have joined small local firms to market major products developed here, confirming the way in which the State’s resource industries generate expertise.
A congenial evening at Kalgoorlie’s historic Hannan’s Club, venue for mining deals for a century, led to a dramatic change of direction for WMC in its attitude towards the emerg-ing lateritic nickel industry.
US giant Hallibuton Energy Services has agreed to be a dealer of a new hydraulic percussion hammer manufactured by SDS Corp at its Canning Vale premises.
Ellendale, a diamond field discovered a quarter of a century ago, is finally to be mined following its sale by the Rio Tinto company Argyle Diamonds to Kimberley Diamond Co.
Exodus Minerals is the latest mining company to venture into the technology sector, announcing the appointment of biopharmacuetical executive Roger Aston to its board.
SYDNEY architects Kann Finch has provided Business News with an indication of what Perth can look forward to when the new $250 million Woodside building is completed in August 2003.
GLOBAL shortages of the hi-tech metal tantalum has forced a European consumer to air freight concentrates from Perth, despite the fact that two thirds of it will be discarded in processing.
NEW sulphide nickel mines and the likely expansion of others this year will challenge the claim that lateritic deposits will dominate the market in the next few years.
THE thrust and parry of the attempt by Shell to acquire Woodside Petroleum has prompted some analysts to believe the Australian company is seeking to produce “a press release a day”, to dissuade its shareholders from defecting.
IMPROVING commodity prices gave WA resource industries a more rewarding 12 months in 2000, and there is the prospect that the recovery in its fortunes will continue in the first year of the new century.
THE Hope Downs project is considering a railway link to Port Hedland as part of a much-expanded $1 billion bid to become the third force in the Pilbara’s iron ore industry.
LACONIC mining boss Ian Burston is looking over his shoulder, not for knives but for friends.“I suppose all my friends will want their retirement presents back,” Mr Burston said.
Australian mining comp-anies are responding to international pressures for greater disclosure, providing a range of information that could not have been foreseen even a decade ago.
WA engineering companies see the early signs of a recovery in resource investment that could end the deepest and most prolonged slump in the past quarter of a century.
AFTER a heady rush into Asian mineral prospects in the mid-1990s, WA explorers have been more cautious in the past couple of years, following political and economic upheaval, particularly in Indonesia.
