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Rio Tinto with its headquarters in the UK approved the CAD$205 million capital expenditure magnetite plant expansion to an annual capacity of 22.8 million tonnes. The company has also approved CAD$79 million for completion of a feasibility study on the third-phase expansion, to extend annual capacity to 26 million tonnes and purchase of long-lead items. Overall, taking into account earlier preparatory work, a total of CAD$818 million has now been committed to the expansions.
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California-based Media Services, an entertainment accounting, payroll, and software provider, announced the opening of a new office in Toronto. With operations in Los Angeles and New York, the Toronto office will enable Media Services to better serve its U.S. customers filming north of the border while reinforcing its relationships with Canadian based productions.
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SgurrEnergy, a renewable energy consultancy firm based in Glasgow, Scotland, has set up an office Vancouver, British Columbia, which will be the company's fourth overseas office. SgurrEnergy is involved in a number of projects on the West Coast of North America ranging from large commercial developments to community initiatives. The consultancy is currently undertaking a recruitment drive in Canada and aims to employ up to 12 people, ranging from engineers with experience in the wind industry to project managers with a proven track record, for the Vancouver office over the next 24 months.
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Renewable Energy Corporation ASA (REC), based in Norway, announced Bécancour, Quebec as the site of choice for the next phase of silicon materials expansions. The site will be developed in stages and could potentially hold four production units. The decision on Bécancour was made after a comprehensive 17 months' process involving screening of more than 100 possible locations in 16 countries. One important reason for selecting Bécancour has been access to stable electricity supply based on long-term, predictable pricing. The announcement represents an investment of over CAD $1.2 billion and that the total number of employees will exceed 300 people.
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A United Kingdom-based insurance service provider is expanding in Nova Scotia. Admiral Insurance plans to create up to 400 jobs in Halifax within the next five years. Admiral Insurance has operated in Halifax since 2007. The company's first year brought high customer service satisfaction rates. Since then, Admiral has consistently expanded. The new jobs will include insurance renewals and sales, while primarily serving clients in the United Kingdom.
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Looking to capitalize on its Canadian connections, the telephone messaging company Global Connect, based in New Jersey, has opened a location in Toronto to enter the market. The company's voice-automated technology creates prerecorded telephone messages for services such as reverse-911, political polling or debt-collection notification. The Toronto office is known as a data centre, where Canadian clients can store their information through online accounts. There are plans for Global Connect to expand further with the potential for branches in Vancouver, British Columbia.
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The University of Toronto and IBM have joined hands to build Canada's most powerful and energy- efficient supercomputer yet. Capable of performing 360 trillion calculations per second, the proposed super device will give a competitive edge to Canada in global research projects. In a statement, the university said the supercomputer will boost research in aerospace, astrophysics, bioinformatics, chemical physics, climate change prediction, medical imaging and the global ATLAS project that probes the forces governing the universe. The computer represents the second largest system ever built on a university campus, and will be the largest supercomputer outside the United States.
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AnyWare Group, a provider of Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions, headquartered in Saint John, New Brunswick, and HealthCare Information Management, Inc., a provider of software solutions and consulting services to enhance claims processing operations based in Walnut Creek, California, have signed a strategic partnership that will further develop their respective customer bases throughout North America. “By leveraging the core strengths of both companies' best-in-breed technologies to address the healthcare industry, AnyWare Group and HCIM can discover new ways to deliver value in this evolving and demanding solutions space”, said Gerry Verner, CEO, AnyWare Group.
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Aurigen Reinsurance Company, a subsidiary of Bermuda-based Aurigen Capital Limited, a life and health reinsurance company, has received regulatory approval from the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions to commence operations as a life and health reinsurance company in Canada. Aurigen is offering a new source of life reinsurance capacity and is building an organization of seasoned professionals aimed at delivering creative solutions backed by analytical methodology. Aurigen maintains offices in Hamilton, Toronto and Bermuda.
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Seismic Micro-Technology (SMT) of Houston, Texas, a Windows-based geoscientific interpretation software company, announced the opening of its Calgary office. Bill Stephenson, Senior V.P. Sales-Americas commented that Canada was a natural growth prospect for SMT. SMT offers geoscience software technology to the upstream exploration and production (E&P) industry. “SMT recognizes that the industry is increasingly exploring unconventional plays, like the Canadian oil sands, and needs advanced interpretation capabilities", said Indy Chakrabarti, Senior Director of Marketing of SMT.
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AnyWare Group, a provider of customer‐driven healthcare solutions, and Massachusetts-based Double‐Take Software, a provider of continuous data protection and recovery software, have signed a marketing partnership to collaborate on joint remote access and business continuity offerings. This agreement will utilize the two companies' core strengths to expand business opportunities.
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Origin BioMed Inc., a manufacturer and exporter of over-the-counter topical drug products, continues its North American expansion with continued support from several investing partners. The Halifax-based company will use $5.1 million in financing to further expand its business. Origin BioMed employs 32 people at its head office in Halifax. The company expects to expand its employee base over the next two years.
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A $121 million expansion was announced by the world's fourth-biggest copper-miner, Xstrata Copper, in its Kidd underground mine, in Northern Ontario. The project will involve deepening the mine, to add 3.4-million tons of ore to the mining plan and extend the life of the operation by one year, to 2017. Construction has begun, and is scheduled for completion by mid-2010.
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Tianjin Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources (TIGMR) based in Tianjin, Peoples Republic of China, has made a $6 million equity investment in Douglas Lake Minerals Inc., a Vancouver-based provider of mining services, to be used for project financing, as well as exploration and development of Douglas Lake’s properties in Tanzania. This will give TIGMR approximately 20% ownership in Douglas Lake. Use of proceeds will include a final payment to close the Mbwemkuru alluvial gold deposit in Tanzania with the balance being used to bring the project into production and fund ongoing geological work on Douglas Lake’s top five exploration targets. Harp Sangha, CEO/President of Douglas Lake Minerals Inc., said the investment will enable Douglas Lake to aggressively explore its existing and future properties, enabling them to bring commercially viable deposits into production, generating near-term profits with minimum further dilution to the company’s stock. TIGMR also has access to capital, equipment, and skilled manpower that far exceeds the resources of most mining companies worldwide.
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More than 100 private Chinese oil producers will jointly establish biodiesel bases in Canada that will facilitate exports of the fuel to China, state media reported. With total investment of $30 million, the Chinese producers plan to establish 40 biodiesel bases in Canada, designed to facilitate annual exports of 1 million to 2 million tons of biodiesel to China for a period of 25 years. Analysts question the profitability of the project. Biodiesel cannot be used as a transportation fuel in China at the moment as there is no national standard for blending the fuel with conventional diesel. Biodiesel is most commonly used as bunker fuel or an industrial lubricant. The biodiesel the Chinese companies will produce in Canada will be made from corn, sorghum, straw, and other materials.
