Word: mineral
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...field, they are quick and methodical. Thirty-six rats trained in Tanzania are working on the project so far, and have already cleared thousands of mines across the country. "Two rats can clear a 200-square-meter area in one hour," says Mkumbo. "It takes one [human] de-miner two weeks to do the same area." And all that the rats ask in return is tasty food. When Samo signals the presence of a mine by scratching the ground, Emmanuel, his handler, presses a clicker which makes a noise that Samo has been trained to associate with food. He scampers...
...Locals say the money made by the mines flows mainly to investors located in China's wealthy coastal cities. It certainly isn't winding up in the pockets of workers. An average miner makes $420 a month. That's not a bad wage for China, but the work is tough and dangerous. China's mines are the world's deadliest, and while most of the accidents occur in coal pits, the government says 2,188 died in gold and other metal mines last year. Such poor working conditions persist in China because workers' rights are weak and there...
...Could the next BHP Billiton, the world's biggest mining company, be Chinese? Observers say it's possible, given high metals prices and China's untapped reserves. But listed domestic miners have ambitions beyond China's borders. Zijin, China's leading gold miner, last year purchased a company with gold-mining and exploration rights in Tajikistan and a stake in a Philippine gold and copper project. Zijin also led a consortium that bought a majority stake in London-listed Monterrico Metals, which owns a copper and molybdenum project in Peru. "All the big mining groups started this way," says Atherley...
...tripled. Inco now accounts for about 40% of Vale's revenues, and gained the company important technology and highly skilled personnel. "It was a major step for us," says Tito Martins, executive director for corporate affairs and energy at Vale. More recently, Vale has made a play for Swiss miner Xstrata in a deal estimated at $90 billion...
...Nelson's theory has been picked apart by two veterans of the field who could be said to favor a more spiritual view of NDEs. In a recent issue of the Journal of Near-Death Studies, Americans Jeffrey Long and Janice Miner Holden argue that since 40% of NDErs in Nelson's study denied ever having had an episode of REM intrusion, the idea that it underlies NDEs "seems questionable at best...