News Flash July 19 2010
Extracts from Creamer’s “Mining Weekly”
COAL
South Africa coal port strike in 5th day, talks ongoing
A strike over wages by workers at South Africa's main coal export terminal entered its fifth day on Friday with talks expected to drag on over the weekend, but operations remain unaffected, officials said. About one fifth of the 500-strong workforce at the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) went on strike on Monday after rejecting the company's wage rise offer of 9,5%. Read More
COAL
Riversdale seeks A$337m to accelerate Benga coal project
Coal producer Riversdale Mining plans to raise A$337-million through a share placement for its Benga coal project, in Mozambique, which wants to expand to 20-million tons a year run-of-mine operation by 2013. Riversdale said in a statement on Thursday that it would use A$150-million of the capital sourced through the raising for the stage two and three expansions, which carried a price tag of A$400-million . Read More
COAL
Caledon gets offer approach, shares jump
Australian coking coal producer Caledon Resources has received an offer approach from an unnamed company just weeks after shareholder and ex-suitor Polo Resources ended talks. Caledon said on Thursday it had received "a number of unsolicited and indicative enquiries from third parties in respect of possible alternative transactions" since Polo's withdrawal but that they were at a very early stage . Read More
Extracts from Creamer’s “Engineering News”
ENERGY MIX
Reduce carbon by making it dear, energy economist argues
In the absence of decisive intervention from governments, fossil fuels will remain the dominant energy source for the next 25 years to 30 years, despite strong growth in renewable-energy production and despite the build up of climate-changing carbon dioxide (C02) in the atmosphere, a leading US energy economist and author argues. Speaking during a recent lecture in South Africa organised by the Fossil Fuel Foundation, professor Carol Dahl of the Colorado School of Mines' Mineral and Energy..Read More
RENEWABLE ENERGY
Group Five studies Kalahari concentrated solar power project
JSE-listed Group Five is studying a concentrated solar power (CSP) project near Kathu, in the Northern Cape, which could produce as much as 600 MW of electricity, a company official said on Friday. A public meeting regarding the proposed Kalahari CSP project would be held on Tuesday, at the Sishen Golf Club, which interested and affected parties could attend. Read More
Platts Washington
US GAO says coal plants need better data, technology to cut CO2
The US Government Accountability Office on Friday said in a report that carbon capture and storage technologies lag energy efficiency technologies for coal-fired power plants by 10 to 15 years. Read More
GIZMag
First solar/coal hybrid power station up and running
The world's first hybrid solar/coal power plant has been built near Palisade in Colorado. Xcel Energy and Abengoa Solar are partnering on the demonstration project which uses solar parabolic trough technology to supplement the use of coal. Initially, it's expected to reduce the emissions generated by the Cameo Station's Unit 2 plant by three to five percent, but it's thought that this could increase to up to ten percent. Read More
Guardian.co.uk
Rich countries to pay energy giants to build new coal-fired power plantsUN's Clean Development Mechanism to use European carbon offset credits to subsidise 20 'efficient' coal plants in India and China.
The UN is set to channel billions of pounds of public money from rich countries to giant energy companies to build 20 heavily polluting coal-fired power plants on the basis that they will emit less carbon dioxide than older ones. Read More
AZoCleantech.com
US-Chinese Team to Develop Coal Conversion, Emissions Capture and Carbon Storage Technologies
Laboratory directors from the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., and the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown, W.Va., met with researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing to kick off the new clean energy technology research effort in June. Read More
Wall Street Journal
Experts are so focused on analyzing the BP spill that they're overlooking the next big thing.
Even energy experts tend to forget the enormous impact unanticipated events can have on markets and public policy. Today there are two developments that have the potential to cause dramatic change: the existence of enormous reserves of natural gas and the BP spill. Read More
