Great Basin Gold and its investors are deeply unhappy with the toll treatment costs imposed on it at Newmont’s Midas plant in Nevada, prompting management to actively talk about setting up a dedicated mill and finding another outlet in the interim.

Judging from CEO Ferdi Dippenaar’s comments during Great Basin’s maiden quarterly conference call it would appear Yukon-Nevada Gold Corp. is a likely candidate to toll treat the company’s ore until a decision is made on securing a dedicated mill.
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The Manila government’s policy of secrecy was assailed last week with the exposure of an ASEAN gas pipeline agreement that was kept secret by Philippine President Gloria Arroyo over the last six years.

The fisherfolk alliance Pamalakaya insisted the Memorandum of Understanding on the Trans-ASEAN Gas Pipeline which the Philippine government signed with Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam on July 5, 2002 in Bali, Indonesia was a treaty that needs the approval of two-thirds of the present 23 Philippine senators, but the ASEAN pact was hidden from the approving authority and slipped the scrutiny of the Filipino public. Read more » »

An educational workshop on natural gas drilling is scheduled for the Tioga County Landowners Group at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Tioga Central School auditorium.

Don Zaengle, a geologist, and attorney Chris Denton will talk about issues related to drilling into the Marcellus Shale.

The Tioga County Landowners Group, formed to represent landowners negotiating deals with energy companies, is accepting new members throughout Tioga County. For information, go to www.tiogagaslease or contact Nick Schoonover at 687-2800.

Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith says the county will take its opposition of a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal to the Supreme Court.

Smith says the county plans to appeal the decision of a federal appellate court that ruled the county overstepped its authority when it imposed zoning regulations that would prevent the terminal from being built.
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Shell and BPZ will make cooperation agreement to do seeking of new natural gas source in Peru. Both exploration companies of this mine hopes will get new source of natural gas, what can give advantage and increases result of exploration of second natural gas of company.

Planning of location nature gas source location search in three offshore block around 1,300 kilometers ( 800 miles) north of Lima.
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T. Boone Pickens on Tuesday called for greater investment in natural gas and wind power as part of a plan launched by the oil tycoon aimed at reducing U.S. foreign oil dependence by a third.

The Texas billionaire earlier this year announced that he would spend $10 billion to build the world’s biggest wind farm.

“The objective of this plan — The Pickens Plan — is to underscore the need to declare a national emergency and develop governmental leadership that will address America’s staggering dependence on imported oil,” according to a press release from BP Capital, a hedge fund headed by Pickens. Read more » »

These are boom times for mining companies but the big profits are being eaten into not only by spiraling energy costs but suddenly rising prices for the explosives used to blast into the rocks.

It’s all because of the high price of natural gas, which when converted into ammonia is used to produce ammonium nitrate, a key ingredient in fertilizers and explosives. Natural gas prices are up 75 percent so far this year and ammonia prices have doubled since last summer.

The price rises have added to explosives companies’ profits but for miners it is an added cost, along with higher diesel, energy and labor expenses, narrowing their margins at a time when metals and coal are in big demand.
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Apex has identified up to 8 drilling locations on these lands pending further geological study.

Apex has acquired an additional 800 acres within its SW Saskatchewan Bakken oil play area. This brings Apex’s acreage in potential Bakken bearing lands to 2,240 acres of 100% working interest lands. Licensing has begun on its first well on these lands with potential Viking and Bakken heavy oil production.

Also, Apex expects to spud its Alberta Pakowki Section 13 prospect within a week, pending cooperative weather.
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Congressional Democrats were quick to reject the push for lifting the drilling moratorium, saying oil companies already have 68 million acres offshore waters under lease that are not being developed.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Bush’s proposals “another page from (an)… energy policy that was literally written by the oil industry — give away more public resources.”

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee, rejected lifting the drilling moratorium that has been supported by a succession of presidents for nearly two decades.
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Investment in Norway’s oil and natural gas industry will rise to a record 132.3 billion kroner ($25 billion) in 2008 as soaring energy prices spur companies to step up exploration and services, the statistics office said.

The 2008 estimate, including spending on pipelines, represents a 20 percent increase from 2007 and is 2.1 billion kroner higher than a forecast published in March, Statistics Norway said on its Web site today. Total investments in oil and gas will drop to 116.9 billion kroner next year, the office said.
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