With the way commodities performed last year around the world—who really wanted to attend a conference, or go to a mining show, in order to talk about making deals or forge new partnerships? Times have surely changed. Along with thousands of other eager attendees, I will be at the Prospectors and Developers Association Conference next week, Monday through Wednesday, scoping out new stories and making some new contacts. Coverage will be included in all George Media publications next month. Though...

It’s fair to say that Argentina and the United Kingdom share a bit of back history when it comes to the Falkland Islands and renewed tensions over rightful sovereignty for these lands could have been easily enough predicted. The onslaught of appeal to international mediators is quite a spectacle. From appealing to the United Nations for discussions, to most recently, Hilary Clinton, USA Secretary of State, offering to step in and promising to be impartial, it becomes difficult to determine any...

With the way commodities performed last year around the world—who really wanted to attend a conference, or go to a mining show, in order to talk about making deals or forge new partnerships? I’d like to take the opportunity to encourage those in the resource business to consider registering for the Prospectors and Developers Conference in Toronto, Ontario in early March. I’ll be at the conference scoping out new stories and hopefully making some new contacts. Though last year is tough, it...

As investors wait for minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s January policy meeting, the TSX could signify new confidence in the resource sector. Despite tentative feelings towards the commodities at the beginning of the year, the TSX seems to set the pace for a renewed risk appetite. Rising oil prices and positive gold news shows that maybe, the sector is coming back and renewed investment frenzy is upon us. The question is: What companies will investors be watching in 2010, that will help renew...

I haven’t been able to get the news about The National Trust’s plans to up its renewable energy portion out of my thoughts. The National Trust is the largest private holder and preserver of the United Kingdom’s treasured stately homes, parks, castles and estates. If, like me, you have been ushered/dragged around the delights of Calke Abbey in Derbyshire, Little Moreton Hall in Cheshire and Dunstanburgh Castle in Northumberland as an unwilling child, its work is an essential part of understanding...

In the United Kingdom, grand plans for “feed-in tariffs,” to reward renewable-conscious Brits as of April 2010, have not been particularly well received. While a host of new and promising renewable energy installation and provisions companies have taken over our television screens and energy providers throughout the country are proclaiming their excitement at the arrival of the scheme, much of the British public and press appear far from convinced. The basic premise for the incentives,...

IRJ reported this Tuesday that the Canadian Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice sent a stern message to energy companies in Alberta’s oilsands – telling the big wigs that they need to shape up environmental efforts and communicate those initiatives with the global community. Oilsands companies in Canada’s west have always come under the microscope due to an a apparent lack of environmental conscientiousness. However, most operators in the oilsands will tell you that they are doing business...

It’s another blog post and another sombre outcome as news breaks that the Russia-Belarus oil talks have taken place to no avail. The countries have spent the last couple of days in discussion over disagreements about the price of export duty which Belarus ought to pay to Russia for oil. Just yesterday on January 7, 2010, Russia’s Energy Minister, Sergei Shmatko told press that the Moscow and Minsk governments were nearing a solution to this dispute. However today it transpires that in less...

2010 had barely begun when on Saturday January 2, reports surfaced of an oil leak in a pipeline operated by the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). The leak reportedly began on the previous Wednesday, December 30, as a result of a construction accident. Initial reports claimed that it had polluted a 20-mile stretch beginning at the Chishui tributary of the Wei River in the Shaanxi province, northern China. A 700-strong team swooped in to clean up the spillage, which, according to China’s...

There is an Italian proverb which says, “when the ship has sunk, everyone knows how she might have been saved.” It’s fair to say that this one can be well-attributed to our global outlook in light of COP15, first nicknamed “Hopenhagen,” now “Brokenhagen,” but before you throw up your hands in despair at another blog post which slams the lack of progress and concrete decision-making here, worry not, I’ll keep this brief and light. “After the Copenhagen climate conference failed...