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“Queensland Nickel reconfirms its commitment to New Caledonia after spending more than A$1 billion ($734 million)in recent years growing the economy of the Pacific archipelago, and is happy to take increased volumes of its laterite ore,” refinery owner Clive Palmer said in an email to Reuters.

Palmer also said his refinery had confirmed to nickel miner Societe Le Nickel in New Caledonia that it was “ready and willing” to extend its contract for five years.

Read more at: https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/australian-nickel-refiner-seeks-more-020400009.html

The powerful South African mining union NUM called for an indefinite strike starting Sunday at the nickel mine in eastern Nkomati over demands for bonus pay.

The action is set to begin at 7:00 pm (1700 GMT) and “will continue indefinitely until the NUM demands are complied with,” the deputy general secretary of the union and chief negotiator William Makgabo Mabapa said in a statement Saturday.

Read more at: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/african-nickel-miners-strike-over-184547537.html#30xIXLs

10th Aug, 2015

Rio Tinto has announced that Vania Grandi has succeeded Greg Lavallee in the position of General Manager Metallics within the Rio Tinto Iron & Titanium Commercial group. Vania started with the metallics team in August 2014 on the development of RTIT commercial strategy and moved into the General Manager role on April 1st. Previously, Vania had been working in the Copper Product Group where she had senior leadership responsibilities for Marketing, Sales and Sustainable Development.
– See more at: http://www.ipmd.net/news/003458.html#sthash.RJ39FqNZ.dpuf

8/11/2015 6:59 PM ET

General Electric Co. Tuesday said it will sell its U.S. healthcare finance unit to Capital One Financial Corp. (in a deal of about $9 billion, as the company streamlines its business to focus more on industrial manufacturing.

http://www.rttnews.com/2539696/general-electric-to-sell-healthcare-finance-unit-to-capital-one.aspx

Graphene, an atom-thick material with extraordinary properties, is a promising candidate for the next generation of dramatically faster, more energy-efficient electronics. However, scientists have struggled to fabricate the material into ultra-narrow strips, called nanoribbons, that could enable the use of graphene in high-performance semiconductor electronics.

Now, University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers have discovered a way to grow graphene nanoribbons with desirable semiconducting properties directly on a conventional germanium semiconductor wafer. This breakthrough could allow manufacturers to easily use graphene nanoribbons in hybrid integrated circuits, which promise to significantly boost the performance of next-generation electronic devices.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-08-graphene-nanoribbon-faster-efficient-electronics.html#jCp

Lanka Graphite on Friday commenced trading on the ASX under the ticker LGR, following the completion of the merger of Viculus and Euro Petroleum. The firm holds exploration licences for high-purity graphite sites in Sri Lanka, and hopes to mine it for use in “new graphene technology”. The firm also appointed Jitto Arulampalam as its new Executive Chairman.

Read more at: http://newmaterialsnews.com/graphene-news/lanka-graphite-starts-trading-on-asx-targets-graphene-market