Year in Review

IRJ MAY 2009
UNIVERSAL MINE SAFETY

Never a group to teeter at the shallow end of a topic, our fledgling issue saw IRJ tackle what remains to be a key topic for the mining industry; health and safety from our native Canada. Speaking with Jon Baird, President of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) and Managing Director of the Canadian Association of Mining Equipment and Services for Export (CAMESE), we looked at where Canada stands in this worldwide issue and the shifting health and safety philosophy of mining today.

We also spoke with a great collection of companies, ranging from Franco Nevada to Xstrata Zinc and the first of our special reports from Deloitte and Richie Clark, our legal expert.

In the news that month, Canada oil and gas majors Suncore and Petro-Canada took part in a merger with a market cap of US$43.3 billion, ESSO Australia celebrated 40 years oil production from its Bass Strait operations, and Dubai Aluminium took a 19 per cent stake in an alumina refinery owned by mining giant, Vale, in Brazil. It was a certainly busy first month, but there was plenty more to come!

IRJ JUNE 2009
TALENT MANAGEMENT IN VOLATILE TIMES

Skipping swiftly to a wholly different aspect of the resources industry, June saw IRJ tackle the labour crunch with a special report from Stephen Diotte, of Deloitte. Not only did this report lift the lid on how the global financial crisis will alter the workforce as we know it, but marked the beginning of our long relationship with Deloitte as a valued and insightful contributor.

Other features included our first forays into green and renewable energy with Urban Green Energy and Canada’s Regional Power and the story of the Sifto Salt mine with owners Sifto Canada Corporation.

In the news, Australia requested US$18 million in compensation from Swire Shipping of China when the Pacific Adventurer liner released 200,000 litres of oil over the coast of Queensland and the Canadian government pledged to impose a minimum 5 per cent ethanol blend in all petroleum from 2010.

IRJ JULY 2009
SOUTH AFRICA MINING HEALTH AND SAFETY, A TIME FOR CHANGE

Many among us will remember quite how pivotal July 2009 turned out to be for various issues within resources. On the back of some great advice in our mining health and safety Canada feature, and some lovely feedback, we turned our attentions to the giant issue that is health and safety in the South African mining industry. This marked a growing focus on South African resources which IRJ retains today, and couldn’t have come at a better time as we also spoke exclusively onsite with MineAfrica, Biotherm energy and Central Rand Gold.

The resource news items from this month need little introduction, as Kurdistan exported oil for the first time, the Obama Administration commenced the clamp down on mountaintop coal mining and Sudan opened its first ethanol plant, to name but a few of the heady developments the summer brought.

IRJ AUGUST 2009
WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES?

Turning our attentions once again towards green and renewable energy, IRJ met Steve Sawyer, Secretary General of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), who we catch up with in this, our April 2010 issue. This month also introduced our coverage of offshore technologies, companies and developments with Tideway Offshore Contractors, and we reported directly from the Carbon Capture and Storage summit in London, UK.

Breaking news continued to pour in, as Iraq hosted a road show for the oil fields up for auction on August 25, the Obama Administration set aside US$3 billion for biomass, wind and solar government-funded grants, and activist group the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) announced a 60-day ceasefire with the oil operations it had been targeting for terrorist attacks. IRJ was there to capture all of this and ring you the news as it broke, and as September arrived we knew there was a great set of stories we simply had to investigate further.

IRJ SEPTEMBER 2009
LATIN AMERICAN MINING CONFERENCE, HOW HEALTHY IS THE RESOURCE SECTOR?

Fresh from the LatAm Congress in Florida, our global editor in chief, Sara Kopamees, talked about the tough times Latin American mining sector has endured under the global financial crisis and the heightened focus the sector has found for sustainability. Things look to be on the up for this lucrative resource region and we had the scoop first in this issue.

Companies and groups gracing our pages in September included marine and offshore, with words of wisdom from the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA), the World Nuclear Association, Kenya Petroleum Refineries and Capital Drilling.

In September resource news, the Federal trade Commission unveiled a new law to prevent fraudulent or deceptive actions within the oil market, French energy heavyweight EDF’s £4 billion United Kingdom went up for auction to raucous reception and a joint investigation between the Mexican and U.S. government over a supposed attempt to steal millions in product from Mexico’s state-owned oil player, Pemex, was announced.

IRJ OCTOBER 2009
INSIDE IRAQ, THE AUCTIONS, DISPUTES AND RESOURCE-RICH OIL REGIONS
Proving that no news agenda is too contentious and no topic is too broad, IRJ investigated the oil fields up for auction to invited international bidders under the Iraq government. We looked more closely at the terms of the auctions, the disagreements between the government and the world’s oil majors, and delved deep into the Iraq oil industry to decipher just how much was on offer. The short answer—a lot!

We caught up with a great bunch of international resource companies including Perdaman’s landmark coal-to-urea project, spoke with the Biomass Power Association in Washington and managed to fit in time to attend the 48th Conference of Metallurgists (COM) in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada too.

In the news, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation announced an exciting deepwater discovery near its Venus well off of the Sierra Leone Coast, Chevron got the green light to commence construction of the mighty Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Australia, and Canadian Hydro Developers acquired the right to a project offshore of Ontario which will be the largest in the world.

IRJ NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2009
THE KURDISH BATTLE FOR KIRKUK

We just didn’t have enough space in the mag to tell-all with our first cover story on Iraq’s oil industry, and in this, the month after and a double issue, we delved yet further into the market by looking specifically at Kirkuk; the oil-hub which both wider Iraq and Kurdistan claim ownership of. We looked at the history, the product potential and the intricacies making this vital oil region hit the headlines today.

Elsewhere in the world, we spoke to Chevron, De Beers Canada, Masdar and Xstrata Process Support, and attended the commercial launch of Alstom’s EcoTechnia 100 turbine near Paris, France.

Tackling this haul of globetrotting features didn’t stop IRJ from keeping our finger on the industry news pulse as we marked the end of 2009 by looking over those big news items for the year, including the 76 deaths at Harmony’s Gold mine’s Eland Shaft in the Central Free State Province, those Rio Tinto arrests that took place in July in China, and the Venezuelan government’s moves to nationalise mining operations. It was a big year and an all-round first for IRJ, but we still had plenty more to come.

IRJ JANUARY 2010
THE WORLDWIDE GOLD BUYING BOOM

Rejuvenated by a winter break and hankering to get our noses back in the industry’s business, our January issue brought with it an in-depth look at the market demand for gold in light of the global financial crisis, China’s quest to amass greater and greater gold holdings and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bank gold sales which really shook things up. In this issue, IRJ demonstrated that while we might have been seeing in a new year, the financial crisis wasn’t going away and we looked to brace ourselves for whatever the coming months might bring.

In doing so, we got the lowdown from another huge mix of companies including Australia’s Underground Coal Gasification (UGC) experts, Cougar Energy, insights into prospect potential with Petrobakken and enjoyed a great catch up solar-style with Spain’s ACS Cobra.

We made it along to Mines and Money 2009, in London, got the latest from the South African Oil and Gas Alliance and a whole lot more!

IRJ FEBRUARY 2010
CLIMATE CHANGE- THE TOP TEN PLAYERS

From President Obama to Jose Barroso of the European Commission and James E Hansen of NASA, we charted the involvement of 10 top climate change voices to look out for in the coming year. This gave us a great chance to introduce in more detail the names and faces so often in the news, and assembles the various predictions offered for 2010 and beyond.

Companies involved with IRJ this issue included talking logistics with the African Rail Company, operational excellence with Petrochem and safety solutions of tomorrow with SAFEmap.

The resource news showed no signs of slowing down in pace either, as we began exploring specific resources in our coverage each month, beginning with oil and gas. In doing so, we covered the oil spill which threatened China’s Yellow River, the lack of initial progress between Russia and Belarus as they discussed petroleum exportation agreements, and news of the Algerian Oil Minister, Mohamed Meziane, being investigated for fraud.

IRJ MARCH 2010
TRACKING THE TRENDS IN 2010

This was the month that Sara shared her exclusive interview with Glenn Ives, Deloitte’s mining expert, to gain his opinion on where the market was likely to go over the coming year and decade—as 2010 roared along. Ives explained further about market volatility and underlined the preparations mining companies ought to be working on to safeguard their work from future financial surprises.

This month, we met up with another host of top notch companies and organisations, including an exclusive interview with Randgold Resources Mark Bristow, SVITSER, Torresol Energy and yet another exclusive interview with Minister Lekstrom, British Colombia’s Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum.
In the renewable and green energy news, Clean Energy Week began on February 1, a newly proposed wind farm contract in Nevada offered 20 years of greener energy, and the UK heritage trust, The National Trust, showed how renewable energy solutions today can be used to protect Britain’s castles, palaces and other historical buildings for tomorrow.

IRJ APRIL 2010
PDAC, THE NEXT GENERATION OF MINERS ADD VALUE FOR SHAREHOLDERS

That’s right, last issue we handed our focus over to PDAC as IRJ reported direct from the event and captured the biggest topics, acclaimed companies and odd-surprising sentiments and speakers who graced this year’s event in Ontario.

Alongside attending PDAC, we chatted to the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA), AMEC MinProc in South Africa, West Coast Metals and copper giants KGHM.
In this, the more recent news from the mining sector, we tracked promising talk of future joint ventures between India and Australia, South African President Jacob Zuma’s denial amidst the rumoured threat of mining nationalisation for the country, and of course, more news from PDAC too!