When Erica Grubb installed solar panels on the roof of her Berkeley house, the decision was both personal and political.
Personal because Grubb used a small inheritance from her mother to purchase the solar panels, which cost $18,000 — $13,000 after rebates.
Political because seeing “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore’s movie on global warming, inspired Grubb, a [...]

BACK in 1999, when she was the head of refining at Chevron, Patricia A. Woertz told a group of energy officials that it was time to stop mixing agricultural policy with fuels policy.
In that same speech, at a fuels conference in Washington, Ms. Woertz also publicly expressed worry about the unintended consequences of a federal [...]

Magnus International Resources, Inc. announced today that it has entered into a letter of intent to acquire African Mineral Fields, a company which holds an exclusive option to acquire 100% interests in four gold projects in Uganda. The acquisition comes as part of Magnus’ decision to expand its mineral portfolio into Africa, which holds 55% [...]

Inco Ltd., the world’s second-largest nickel producer by 2005 output, raised its forecast for third- quarter profit, citing continued strength in the nickel market.
“Nickel and copper prices have increased considerably during the third quarter,” the Toronto-based company said today in a PR Newswire statement.

Listing-candidate Talvivaara Mining’s planned nickel mine in Finland has drawn interest from two mining giants, Canada’s Inco and Russia’s Norilsk Nickel , a Finnish newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest producer of the metal, has been in talks with Talvivaara’s management and is following progress on the new mine, business daily Kauppalehti quoted [...]

The world’s 10th-largest nickel producer, LionOre , has become a takeover target as bigger firms crave its high-growth profile and special refining technology, a company official said on Tuesday.
LionOre, which has mines in southern Africa and Australia, will also probably become the only company whose main product is nickel following a wave of takeover activity.
“We [...]

Nickel prices rose more than 5 per cent on Thursday on low inventories and tight supplies on a day when copper prices also rose in spite of an expected settlement of the near month-long strike at the world’s largest copper mine in Chile.
The three-month nickel price rose to $28,750 a tonne on the London Metal [...]

Brazil’s Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), most recently in the news over its contested bid for Canada’s Inco, is reported to be going to develop a massive new coal mining project at Moatize in Mozambique in south eastern Africa.
Moatize has long been known as a major, and rich, coal deposit with large reserves of [...]

POSCO Co. Ltd., the world’s fifth-largest steel maker, dismissed as “nonsense” a report that it had made a huge, money-losing bet that nickel prices would fall on the London Metal Exchange.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the South Korean steel maker was struggling to cover a 10,000 tons short nickel position on the [...]

Nickel closed within $200 of its recent record high on Monday, supported by demand from stainless steel makers who may have underestimated their needs for 2006.
Nickel for delivery in three months closed at $27,100 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange (LME) falling back after hitting $27,250, only $50 away from last week’s record high.
On [...]