FORGET the gold explorers and miners. The $US70 increase in gold prices since March 2001, to nearly $330, provides some healthy prospects for suppliers of mining services and equipment.
HANCOCK Prospecting and South African joint venture partner Kumba Resources Limited has denied claims it received an offer for access to BHP Billiton’s Pilbara railway line as required under State Government legislation.
RUNNING a vehicle fleet can be one of the biggest expenses many financial managers will ever have to deal with.Buying, maintaining and selling decisions must all be made in the light of a business’s individual circum-stances.
WA’S property market is expected to maintain strong growth over the next 15 years, with a State Government report indicating an increase in household numbers of almost 50 per cent by 2016.
BGC boss Len Buckeridge, who has never shied away from taking on the union movement, has taken on a kindred spirit – former State Industrial Relations Minister Graham Kierath –as the company’s new troubleshooter.
FUND managers should warn their members early that this year would most likely return negative growth. This should ward off any knee-jerk reaction from unhappy members, according to head of investment research at fund researcher InTech, Dennis Sams.
WHEN it comes to bikes, Glen Parker knows his stuff, having spent more than 40 years in the bicycle industry, the past five as operator of the Rottnest Island Bike Hire business.
ETHICAL business is becoming big business, with a range of special interest groups bringing ethics to the forefront of government and industry decision making.
THE railway access dispute between BHP Billiton and Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd to be heard in the Supreme Court in July will be watched closely by the mining industry, the State Government and private rail operators.
COLOURFUL Perth businessman and vintage car buff Peter Briggs is seeking to offload exploration tenements in the East Kimberley near the Rio Tinto-controlled Argyle Diamonds operations.
WESTERN Power is seeking expressions of interest for the purchase of fly-ash from its Collie, Muja and Kwinana power stations in a bid to generate extra cash flow and solve an environmental headache.
RESEARCH house Morningstar has maintained its confidence in the ING Group and the ANZ Bank following the joint venture between the Australian and Dutch banks.
DICKENS’ character Ebenezer Scrooge was a firm proponent in the theory that those who keep watch over their pennies will also just as closely guard their pounds.
WA’s business community has welcomed the Federal Government’s $2.1 billion budget surplus and its positive impact on interest rates and inflation rates.
NEW float Image Resources NL was forced to alter its prospectus last week after the original prospectus failed to outline clearly what minimum subscription could be taken for the initial public offer to go ahead.
NEVER far from the watchful gaze of analysts and the media, the ‘big four’ banks are again in the spotlight after recording a 12.5 per cent increase in combined underlying profit for the first half of 2002 compared with the same period last year.
With gold edging up to and beyond $US310 an ounce, stockbrokers and investors alike are rediscovering their confidence in a sector that until recently looked like remaining in the doldrums.
THE launch of a new national Christian investment peak body later this month is part of an ongoing move by church groups to use their investment muscle.
TRANSPORT costs are often the maker or breaker of new mining operations throughout regional WA, a point not lost on Consolidated Minerals Limited operations general manager Terry Stark.
WITH business investment in WA up 25 per cent higher on this time last year and a resurgence in oil and gold prices, the Gallop Government appears to have everything going for it as it approaches its second budget.
ARMED with what it believes is the second largest aeromagnetic database in Australia, second only to that held by Rio Tinto, the directors of Image Resources NL feel they have secured some of the best gold and base tenements in Australia.
PERTH debt collection business Repcol Limited looks set to hit the board on May 21, after closing its $14 million initial public offer oversubscribed earlier this week.
