The initial batch of  310 ElectraGen H2 units will be installed by ACME ahead of the deployment of the natural gas fueled fuel cell systems, due to commence in 2010.

As previously announced, significant advancements in its proprietary technologies will allow IdaTech to produce more robust and significantly more cost effective integrated fuel cell systems by 2010. The first of these products to be launched will be the natural gas fuelled system for deployment in early 2010 under the ACME contract, 9,690 systems in all, taking the number of generator units sold to ACME to the agreed number of 10,000. 

IdaTech and ACME signed a fuel cell generator supply agreement in 2008.

IdaTech CEO Hal Koyama said: “Passing this (the tests) and securing the purchase order for the first 310  ElectraGen H2 validates the robustness of the product and ACME's commitment to the program.  Our system integration skills and real world field experience, gained from the 150 systems we have already deployed (elsewhere), have proved invaluable to ensuring the success of the ElectraGen H2.”

The Shanghai Comprehensive Index advanced 1.73 percent to 3063.25. The SME Comprehensive Index added 1.02 percent to 4399.04. The Hang Seng Index declined 1.09 percent to 18178.05. The Hang Seng Growth Enterprises Index advanced 0.45 percent to 577.78. The Hang Seng China Enterprise Index added 0.08 percent to 10971.89. 

Taiwan's TAIEX Index added 1.35 percent to 6667.53.  

PetroChina (SH:601857; HK:0857), the country’s biggest oil producer, gained 3.29 percent on Shanghai trading but lost 0.35 percent on Hong Kong trading. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (SH:600028; HK:0386), Asia’s largest oil refiner, advanced 3.90 percent on Shanghai but slid 0.68 percent on Hong Kong.

China Shenhua Energy Co. (SH:601088,HK:1088), the nation’s largest coal producer, climbed 4.33 percent on Shanghai but retreated 0.7 percent on Hong Kong.

Zijin Mining Group Co. (SH:601899; HK:2899), China’s largest gold producer, surged 7.36 percent on Shanghai but dropped 1.14 percent on Hong Kong.  

Anti-H1N1-flu shares surged again after seven students in Beijing’s Nanhu Zhongyuan Primary School were confirmed as infected with the virus last night. Beijing Tiantan Biological Products Corp. (SH:600161) and Guilin Layn Natural Ingredients Co. (SZ:002166) surged to the 10 percent trading cap. Zhejiang Conba Pharmaceutical Co. (SH:600572) advanced 3.94 percent.  

Greater China Technology Group (HK:8032), a traditional Chinese medicine vendor, surged 40.68 percent after announcing the acquisition of two thirds stakes in coolpoint Group, a producer of  air-conditioning water-heater.

It announced in May that its 40 percent farm-in partner Canamens Ltd planned to withdraw from Siekierki following a "strategic review of its priorities", and cited Canamens as saying the  withdrawal should not be viewed as an indication of any change in its view of the project's potential.

Under the terms of the deal, Aurelian will buy back Canamens’ 40 percent interest in its Polish unit Energia Zachod for €8,870, giving Aurelian a 90 percent stake in EZ. Canamens will also waive its right to repayment of loans of approximately €400,000 made to Aurelian Group companies and make a contribution toward committed project expenses of US$500,000.

The company is currently actively involved in discussions with potential partners which it expects to conclude this summer, it added.

He is joining Prudential from Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LLOY) where he has worked since 2002 in a number of senior leadership roles across insurance and retail banking including as managing director, Direct Channels UK Retail Banking, MD of HBOS Financial Services and MD of HBOS General Insurance.

Shares were trading down nearly 13 percent in late morning deals.

The outturn for the first half of the current year will be similar to that of the second half of 2008, with the group trading at broadly breakeven, it said.

However, cash generation has continued to be strong and it expects to end the year with a net cash balance.

The company plans to use the money to accelerate its growth plans, and in particular to finance further development and testing of its range of nutrient products, to finance field trials and to recruit sales staff. The technical sales team will be expanded with the aim of increasing direct sales in the 15 countries where the group's products are already being sold and supporting the Arysta LifeScience Corp sales effort.

Chief executive Peter Blezard commented: “With the continuing and strong support of our current shareholders and the confidence shown in the company by new investors we will apply this growth plan fundraising to further develop the company's commercial potential. “

The placing will be used to complete additional drilling at the Tonkolili Iron Ore Project in Sierra Leone and to fast track the feasibility study for the Tonkolili Iron Ore body, port, rail, and power and infrastructure rail projects.

“The proceeds will allow us to develop the magnetite iron ore resource towards our target of 10 billion tonnes and fast track the Tonkolili Definitive Feasibility Study, to create substantial value for our shareholders. In addition we will undertake engineering work on the infrastructure required to support our iron ore projects,” Frank Timis, Executive Chairman of African Minerals, said. “This is a very large step towards us realising the full potential of our world class iron ore deposit at Tonkolili and the future infrastructure rehabilitation and construction work will in due course provide positive benefits to the local community and the economy of Sierra Leone.”

Peace will continue in his role at Experian until a successor has been appointed.

Peace joined the Standard Chartered board as deputy chairman in August 2007 and has been acting chairman since mid-January 2009.

He will spend at least three days a week in his duties as non-executive chairman of Standard Chartered, which will become his primary role. He will remain as chairman of Burberry Group PLC (LSE: BRBY).

In a pre-close trading update ahead of reporting results for the first half to end-June 2009, it said the order backlog remains in excess of £220 million securing over 90 percent of 2009's anticipated revenues.

The designer and manufacturer of flexible risers and flowlines for the oil and gas industry added the Pyrenees project for BHP Billiton (LSE: BLT; NYSE, ASX: BHP)  is progressing well, with final pipe deliveries complete, and Seastream's offshore installation work is expected to be completed before year-end. Seastream is the group’s joint venture with Sea Trucks Group.

Petrofac will undertake the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the gas compression system, and associated facilities at the Kauther gas plant, in addition to undertaking the commissioning and six months of initial operations.

The project follows the successful completion of the Kauther gas plant in 2007, which Petrofac built on an EPC basis for PDO, including commissioning and operations. 

These two sources of ground water, "GRA 5", and "GRA 1" are together capable of sustaining pumped flowrates of approximately 12,000 megalitres of water per annum over a15 year time frame.  With the water requirement for the current base case for the Boseto Copper Project (10 year project at 2Mtpa processing rate) estimated  at 2,500 megalitres  of water per  annum, these two areas alone have the capacity to deliver more than four times the annual water requirement of the Boseto Copper project for five years longer than the currently.
 
Comment: This is extremely positive news for Discovery. With no shortage of mineral resources, we believe it opens the door for an increase in mill capacity which would bring economies of scale.

Extract has announced a new JORC resource estimate of 145 million pounds of uranium (U308) for Zone 1 Rossing South Project in Namibia.

This is a 34% increase from the previous estimate, 20 per cent of that resources in now in the Indicated category. 

Overall resource grade has also increased to 449 ppm u308. 

This represents the highest granite-hosted uranium deposit in Namibia.  A maident resource for Zone 2 at Rossing South is due in August 2009.  Together, on current trends would place Rossing South into the top 1p global uranium deposits by containted metal.

Importantly, both Zone 1 and Zone 2 desposits are still open along strike and down dip, pointing to possibility of additional resources.

Extract’s Managing Director, Peter McIntyre, said “The significance of the recent high grade intersections we have been reporting, are now being reflected in this major deposit.  This resource base is expected to support a long life, large scale open pit mining operation and a feasibility study is in progress to quantify this potential.”

Kalahari Chairman Mark Hohnen said, "These results yet again underpin that Rossing South is one of the world's most significant uranium discoveries. The 34% increase in resource for Zone 1 to 145 million lbs of U3O8 is fantastic news and in line with our estimates. Additionally we were hugely excited about the increase in grade which makes Rossing South the highest grade granite hosted uranium deposit in Namibia. We look forward to Extract publishing a maiden resource for Zone 2 in August, which we believe will elevate Rossing South into the world's top ten global uranium deposits in terms of contained metal. Importantly the mineralisation at Zone 1 and 2 remains open along strike and down-dip." 

Importantly, ground water resources will be more than sufficient to meet the processing and other operational needs of its 100% owned Boseto Copper Project. 

In fact, water availability significantly exceeds the requirements of currently planned operations with more than four times the project requirement available over a 15 year period.

Discovery Metals’ Managing Director, Brad Sampson said this is an important milestone for the Boseto Copper Project. A water resource has been identified with capacity to more than meet the project’s operational requirements, thus eliminating a key project risk. "We have now demonstrated that neither the life nor scale of the project is likely to be constrained by water supply.”

After an extensive program which included the drilling of eleven water exploration boreholes, the water resources planned for use at Boseto are contained within two of the five potential groundwater resource areas identified during the water exploration program.

These were undertaken as part of the Bankable Feasibility Study on the Boseto Copper Project. Borefields which will tap these resources and will be situated within 15 km of the proposed plant site.

Rio rejected a $19.5 billion investment proposal from its biggest shareholder Chinalco of China last month and instead opted for the share sale and an iron ore joint venture with BHP Billiton Ltd. Chinalco, as the state-owned company is known, confirmed today that its took up its rights in the share sale.

Its major shareholder, China's state-owned Chinalco, later said it had taken up its full entitlement to the offer, which ranks as the fifth-biggest on record. It was a sign that Chinalco was far from severing ties with Rio Tinto.

Rio was trading at $52.28, up 1.32% on the ASX.

Installation works on the Castello production field east of Milan have commenced.

Castello is 78% complete. First production is scheduled for late October 2009 - at an initial production capacity of 2.7 million cubic feet per day.

Italian contractor, Semat SpA, have commenced site activities today and expects to complete the civil works and plant installation within a target four-month schedule.

Po Valley Energy Managing Director, Michael Masterman said all production plant and equipment has been built, factory tested and awaiting completion of the 1st phase of civil works ready for installation.

Polo acquired 4.48 million additional shares in Berkeley Resources in on-market purchases in June at an average price of $1.19 per share.

Polo has increased its stake from 11.44% to 15.07% of Berkeley. The share register is getting extremely interesting given Anglo American's acquisition of Berkeley shares in January.

Investors may recall that Berkeley will undertake the feasibility study over the Salamanca Regional Uranium Project.  Berkeley’s objective is to generate a total resource base for the project of over 65m lbs of U3O8 and to complete a Feasibility Study within 18 months of approval of shareholders in January 2009.

Berkeley will partner with Spanish utility ENUSA to investigate the regeneration of uranium production in Spain.

Fly540, also known as Five Forty Aviation, started operations in November 2006 from its base in Nairobi, Kenya.  It operates domestic and international passenger and freight services in East Africa. The move to Zimbabwe is part of the strategy to roll out the service across Africa with local partners in each country.

Lonrho holds a 49 percent stake in the airline.

Flights from Zimbabwe are scheduled to start from September 2009.

Fly540 Zimbabwe will deliver affordable air links to key domestic and regional cities from a Harare hub and will be an integral part of the Fly540 network that will be flying in nine African countries by the end of 2009, Lonrho said.  

The launch of Fly540 Zimbabwe is also central to LonZim's investment strategy of identifying current market opportunities in Zimbabwe and establishing companies that will benefit from the economic recovery of the country.

LonZim Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of LonZim plc, has invested US$200,000 in obtaining the necessary air services licence. LonZim will invest a further US$4.3 million in an ATR 42 turbo prop from the Lonrho Aviation fleet, and US$ 2.0 million for the operational costs associated with commencing operations and a working capital provision of US$3.9 million for the first twelve months.

Ferrexpo is the only company listed in London that offers a pure play on the iron ore market, so its shares are often considered by the analyst community as a “beta” trade on the iron ore spot price. 

The Ukraine is also home the world’s largest iron ore resources, and has the potential to become a very large iron ore exporter, and thanks to its strategic location, can export raw material by rail into Europe or by sea to international markets.  

Accordingly, the agreement has been terminated and Mitsubishi will not provide the envisaged exploration funding for the projects. The properties will continue to remain 100 percent owned by Caledonia.

Mitsubishi concluded that the conditions precedent relating to security of tenure of the prospecting rights held by Caledonia and its subsidiaries due to the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment requirements imposed by the government do not meet their requirements.

Caledonia will explore and evaluate other strategic options in respect of the projects.