NGM ADVANCES WITH INITIAL URANIUM RESOURCE        IN NIGER

 

 

HIGHLIGHTS

·        Maiden resource delivered ahead of schedule at Takardeit project in Niger

·        Initial inferred resource of 23Mt @ 210ppm – estimate of 11Mlb U3O8 @ 120ppm cut off

·        Deposit is shallow and remains open

·        From discovery to resource within six months, following first drill program

·        New targets identified from aerial survey and structural mapping

·        Drilling scheduled to recommence in March

·        NGM appoints exploration manager to drive next phase of development

 

 

Uranium explorer, NGM Resources (ASX: NGM), is pleased to announce it has delivered its maiden uranium resource at the Takardeit project in Niger.

 

The initial resource estimate was calculated by geological services firm Hellman & Schofield Pty Ltd. It marks a significant milestone for NGM and its shareholders, and has been delivered within six months of commencement of its first drilling program.

 

The Company has also identified further exciting uranium targets, which will be drill tested in the next drilling program, scheduled for March 2010. NGM has also appointed a new Exploration Manager, to drive the next phase of drilling and development of its highly prospective Niger tenements.

 

Maiden resource

 

NGM has delivered an initial inferred resource of 23 million tonnes @ 210ppm, with an estimate of 11 million pounds of U3O8 at 120ppm cut off.

 

This follows a drilling program in the last quarter of 2009, which identified high grade, supergene mineralisation over an area of 2.7km by 2.1km. The mineralisation is shallow to a depth of 30m, and remains open to the south and south west.

 

NGM Director Rob Kirtlan said delineation of the early resource and further targets at Takardeit augured well for the future.

 

“We have been able to move very quickly, from first scout drilling, to deposit discovery to the delineation of our maiden resources within six months. This is highly encouraging for our future programs and opportunities for further resource growth,” Mr Kirtlan said.

 

Mr Kirtlan said the drilling had confirmed the highly prospective nature of NGM’s tenements in the Tim Mersoï basin.  The Company holds 1,500km² of tenements. The drilling program, which was completed in December, focused on just 10km². No deep drilling was undertaken in this drilling program although there is potential for high grade uranium primary mineralisation sources in the deeper Carboniferous unit which will be tested in the next program. Recent interpretation is suggesting the potential that mineralisation may be associated with re-activation of a basement structure. This opens up the possibility of mineralisation in the yet to be drilled Carboniferous, host rocks to the Arlit, Madouela, and Akouta deposits 

 

Mr Kirtlan said “We were tempted to drill some deeper holes as we were getting wide spread supergene style mineralisation with grades up to several thousand parts per million of varying widths. However it made technical sense to wait for the full interpreted magnetic survey which we have just received. The data has given us a significant boost in commencing to understand the structural controls throughout all of our concessions and we now have shallow and deeper targets at Takardeit and elsewhere on the concessions.”

 

Existing discovered deposits and mines have distinctive major controlling structural features, and interpretation to date suggests a major north-south fault through the Company’s tenements holdings.

 

“The early resource at Takardeit is just the beginning; we have identified exciting new targets and have a fully funded exploration and drilling activity program planned for the first and second quarters of 2010,” Mr Kirtlan said.

 

The next drilling program is expected to commence in March, and will include:

·        A  program of 3000 – 5000m of drilling

·        Deeper drilling at Takardeit

·        Drilling at Takardeit East to expand potential resource

·        Drilling of structural targets generated south of Takardeit

·        Drilling of structural targets in the two northern tenements

 

Niger has a long history of uranium production, and ranks as one of the largest, and highest grade uranium producing countries in the world. Mines currently produce at 3,000-4,500ppm both at surface and underground. A new open cut mine, Imouraren is under development and contains 330Mlbs at a grade of 1,200pm. Imouraren lies 80km NNW of the Company’s northerly concession. Although remote, mining in Niger is facilitated by excellent infrastructure, including roads, power, water, and port access.

 

Exploration Manager appointed

 

To drive the next phase of exploration at is Niger projects, NGM has boosted its management team with the appointment of experienced geologist Peter Smith as Exploration Manager.

 

Mr. Smith has more than 20 years experience in the mining and exploration industry in geophysics and geology. This includes experience with BHP Billiton, Pasminco, Xstrata Copper, and Normandy, as well as consulting to a number of junior explorers.

 

Mr. Smith’s background includes extensive experience in Sedimentary Basin Analysis

SAIL signs MOU with KEIC

Mr. Soiles Bhattacharya, Director (Finance)/SAIL and Mr. Ryu, Chang-Moo, Chairman & President/ KEIC) exchanging the MoU papers at New Delhi today 

 

 

New Delhi: Further to the wide-ranging economic relationship between  India and Korea, Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Korea Export Insurance Corporation (KEIC). The MoU  seeks to establish the framework of co-operation in supporting and encouraging trade and/or investment in the field oRyu, Chang-Moo, Chairman & President/ KEIC).f industries where SAIL is involved and related business for the development of such industries.  The MoU was signed by Mr. Soiles Bhattacharya, Director (Finance)/SAIL and Mr.

 

KEIC, a Governmental agency of the Republic of Korea promotes Korean business entities’ exports, overseas investments and other overseas businesses through its diverse programmes including its insurances and guarantee products. Under the MoU, both the companies endeavour to promote co-operation in trade and /or investment credits provided by KEIC related to imports from Korean suppliers including for the IISCO Steel Plant project of a blast furnace and /or investments with Korean companies.

 

The MOU also seeks to establish a strategic alliance in exchange of information and experience with respect to related industries  and collaboration between the two parties.

 

 

Nations Work Together Despite Slow Progress on Copenhagen Accord

 

(Major economies partner on advances critical to climate-change mitigation)  

 

By Cheryl Pellerin

Science Writer

 

Washington ? Despite lingering questions over which nations ultimately will support the Copenhagen Accord, more than a dozen developed and developing countries are already working together to advance technology critical to mitigating the worst effects of climate change.

 

The accord, developed by leaders of 25 major greenhouse-gas-emitting nations in December 2009, seeks to limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius through deep but unspecified cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by developed countries and by setting global and national emissions peaks "as soon as possible," with a longer deadline for developing countries.

 

January 31, 2010, was to be the first deadline after the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen for industrialized countries to list specific emission targets to begin in 2020 and for developing countries to list their voluntary efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions. It was also the deadline for 193 countries that are parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to sign on to support the accord.

 

Instead, at a January 20 briefing, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said the deadline was flexible. According to reports, only a handful of nations so far have indicated their support. The UNFCCC secretariat will issue a report after January 31 on the status of support for the accord.

 

"We're now in a cooling-off period that gives useful time and needed time for countries to resume their discussions with each other," de Boer said. "If countries follow Copenhagen's outcomes  calmly, with their eyes firmly fixed on the advantage of collective action, they have every chance of completing the job."

 

The next official meeting of UNFCCC parties is a two-week negotiating session May 31 to June 11 in Bonn, Germany, in advance of the next climate change negotiating conference November 29 to December 10 in Mexico City.

 

In the meantime, some of the same countries debating support for the Copenhagen Accord are already working together as members of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF), launched by President Obama  in March 2009.

 

ACTION PLANS

 

As the Copenhagen meeting was taking place on December 14, 2009, representatives of the MEF countries launched plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from about 80 percent of the global energy-related industrial processes responsible for emissions.

 

Forum members  include industrialized economies such as Australia, Canada, the United States and the European Union; the BASIC countries ? an acronym for the grouping of Brazil, South Africa, India and China; and others.

 

"Over the last year the Major Economies Forum has put forward 10 different technology action plans , detailed plans in a range of areas," Gary Guzy, deputy director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in a January 21 briefing. "These are designed to provide collaboration on how to achieve a fundamental economic transformation."

Obama's Message on Anniversary of Auschwitz Liberation

 

(President commemorates 65th anniversary of liberation of those who survived)

 

 

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

January 27, 2010

 

Text of the videotaped message from President Barack Obama for the ceremony commemorating the 65th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau

 

Good morning.  And thank you to everyone who worked to bring us to this day, especially the International Auschwitz Council and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

 

To President Kaczynski, Prime Minister Tusk, and to the people of Poland - thank you for preserving a place of such great pain for the Polish people, but a place of remembrance and learning for the world.

 

Although I can't be with you in person, I'm proud that the United States is represented there today by a delegation of distinguished Americans, including Ambassador Feinstein; my wife Michelle's chief of staff, Susan Sher; and my good friend, and the son of Holocaust survivors, Julius Genachowski.

 

And let me commend you for recognizing a woman who has devoted her life to preserving the lessons of the shoah for future generations - Sara Bloomfield of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

 

But most of all, I want to thank those of you who found the strength to come back again, so many years later, despite the horror you saw here, the suffering you endured here, and the loved ones you lost here.  Those of us who did not live through those dark days will never truly understand what it means to have hate literally etched into your arms.  But we understand the message that you carry in your hearts.

 

For you know the truth that Elie Wiesel spoke when I stood with him at Buchenwald last spring.  There, where his father and so many innocent souls left this earth, Elie said that "memory has become the sacred duty of all people of goodwill."

 

We have a sacred duty to remember the twisted thinking that led here - how a great society of culture and science succumbed to the worst instincts of man and rationalized mass murder and one of the most barbaric acts in history.

 

We have a sacred duty to remember the cruelty that occurred here, as told in the simple objects that speak to us even now.  The suitcases that still bear their names.  The wooden clogs they wore.  The round bowls from which they ate.  Those brick buildings from which there was no escape - where so many Jews died with Sh'ma Yisrael on their lips.  And the very earth at Auschwitz, which is still hallowed by their ashes - Jews and those who tried to save them, Polish and Hungarian, French and Dutch, Roma and Russian, straight and gay, and so many others.

 

But even as we recall man's capacity for evil, Auschwitz also tells another story - of man's capacity for good.  The small acts of compassion - the sharing of some bread that kept a child alive.  The great acts of resistance that blew up the crematorium and tried to stop the slaughter.  The Polish Rescuers and those who earned their place forever in the Righteous Among the Nations.

 

And you - the survivors.  The perpetrators of that crime tried to annihilate the entire Jewish people.  But they failed.  Because 65 years ago today, when the gates flew open, you were still standing.  And every day that you have lived, every child and grandchild that your families have brought into the world with love, every day the sun rises on the Jewish state of Israel - that is the ultimate rebuke to the ignorance and hatred of this place.

 

So to those of you who have come back today, I say, no, you are not "former prisoners."  You are living memorials.  Living memorials to the loved ones you left here.  And to the spirit we must strive to uphold in our time - not simply to bear witness, but to bear a burden.  The burden of seeing our common humanity; of resisting anti-Semitism and ignorance in all its forms; of refusing to become bystanders to evil, whenever and wherever it rears its ugly face.

 

Let that be the true meaning of Auschwitz.  Let that be the liberation we celebrate today - a liberation of the spirit that, if embraced, can lead us all - individuals and as nations - to be among the righteous.

 

May God bless you all, and may God bless the memory of all those who rest here.

World Has Made Progress in Earthquake, Tsunami Warning Since 2004

 

(Indian Ocean tsunami prompted international help for vulnerable regions)  

 

By Cheryl Pellerin

Science Writer

 

Washington ? Five years after the magnitude 9.0 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami killed 230,000 people and displaced millions, this region and others worldwide ? including the Caribbean, where Haitians are struggling for their lives after the disastrous January 12 temblor ? are better prepared than ever to monitor, detect and respond to natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis.

 

With oversight and coordination from the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), and with technical and financial help from many nations, initial seismic and tsunami warning systems are in place and continue to be improved in the Indian Ocean, the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean, and the Caribbean.

 

In the Indian Ocean, many nations have contributed to 73 seismic stations and more than 60 coastal sea-level stations. Australia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and the United States have installed deep-ocean tsunameters   in the region to detect tsunami waves traveling across the ocean. Each nation has a warning center, and Australia, India and Indonesia are providing tsunami watch services for the region. Many nations have implemented community-awareness programs and conducted evacuation drills.

 

With international help, the Northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean region has a seismic monitoring system that now supports an interim tsunami warning system, and the sea level monitoring network is being upgraded to establish a core network of real-time tsunami stations.

 

In the Caribbean, building on the island nations' long experience in dealing with hurricanes, storm surges, volcanic eruptions and mudslides, U.S. technical agencies and other international partners have provided new seismic stations, tide and deep-ocean monitoring devices, and training; national and community disaster plans are being developed.

 

"World seismic networks have continued to improve over time because of general advances in information technology. There are more and more options for getting data from point A to point B around the globe and seismic instrumentation continues to improve," Charles McCreery, director of the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center ( http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/ ) (PTWC) in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, said in a recent interview. "But the tsunami in 2004 caused decision makers to throw more resources at this problem, which has helped."

 

TSUNAMI THREAT

 

At 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning in December 2004, the massive India tectonic plate moved under the Burma plate off the northwest coast of Indonesia's island of Sumatra in a process called subduction, lifting the ocean floor by several meters. Half an hour later, the first of a series of giant tsunami waves ( http://nctr.pmel.noaa.gov/Mov/TITOV-INDO2004.mov ) hit the coast of northern Sumatra, then later Thailand, Sri Lanka and other countries ringing the Indian Ocean.

 

On that day, only the United States and Japan had tsunami early warning systems and these covered the Pacific Ocean, where 85 percent of tsunamis historically occur, according to the International Tsunami Information Centre. But earthquakes, undersea landslides and explosions can generate tsunamis in all of the world's oceans, inland seas and large bodies of water.

 

Just over five years later, late on a Tuesday afternoon near Port-au-Prince, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake caused shaking that was felt throughout Haiti and the Dominican Republic, in the Turks and Caicos Islands, southeastern Cuba, eastern Jamaica, parts of Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, and as far away as Tampa, Florida, and Caracas, Venezuela.

 

"Only 10 minutes after the earthquake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center was able to issue a tsunami watch for Haiti, Cuba, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic," Bernardo Aliaga, technical secretary for UNESCO's Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Caribbean Tsunami Warning System, said in a January 26 interview.

 

"People in the Meteorological Department in the Dominican Republic got the warning in 10 minutes," he added. "They communicated with the Cabinet, the prime minister's office, and they were able to get the news to the television within 20 to 25 minutes to make people [in the Dominican Republic] aware of what was going on with respect to the possibility or not of a tsunami. In the case of Haiti there was no time for anything."

 

One minute and 32 seconds after issuing an initial tsunami watch, the PTWC in Hawaii, part of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, cancelled the watch.

 

A tsunami measuring 12 centimeters from wave crest to trough was recorded at Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and a tsunami of less than 1 centimeter was recorded on a deep-ocean tsunameter in the east-central Caribbean. There could have been destructive tsunami waves near the earthquake epicenter, the PTWC tsunami message read, "but there is not a threat to coastal areas further away."

President Sarkozy Calls for a “New Bretton Woods”

• French President Sarkozy calls for “a new Bretton Woods” and a re-examination of the fairness of globalization and capitalism
• The world must move from rhetoric to reality and take concrete action to address priorities such as the economic crisis and climate change, said President Doris Leuthard of the Swiss Confederation
• If long-term global problems are ignored, the economic crisis could lead to a social crisis  

Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, 27 January 2010 − In his opening address at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said that it will not be possible to emerge from the global economic crisis and protect against future crises if the economic imbalances that are at the root of the problem are not addressed. “Countries with trade surpluses must consume more and improve the living standards and social protection of their citizens,” he remarked. “Countries with deficits must make an effort to consume a little less and repay their debts.” The world’s currency regime is central to the issue, Sarkozy argued. Exchange rate instability and the under-valuation of certain currencies lead to unfair trade and competition, he said. “The prosperity of the post-war era owed a great deal to Bretton Woods, to its rules and its institutions. That is exactly what we need today; we need a new Bretton Woods.” Sarkozy said that France would place the reform of the international monetary system on the agenda when it chairs the G8 and G20 next year.

In his address, Sarkozy also called for an examination of the nature of globalization and capitalism. “This is not a crisis in globalization; this is a crisis of globalization,” he said. “Finance, free trade and competition are only means and not ends in themselves.” Sarkozy added that banks should stick to analysing credit risk, assessing the capacity of borrowers to repay loans and finance economic growth. “The role of the bank is not to speculate.” He also questioned the rewarding of high compensation and bonuses for CEOs whose companies lose money. Capitalism should not be replaced but it has to be changed, the French president declared. “We will only save capitalism by reforming it, by making it more moral.”

Speaking before Sarkozy, Doris Leuthard, President of the Swiss Confederation and Federal Councillor of Economic Affairs, told participants that the international community has to bridge the gap between rhetoric and reality as it tackles major challenges such as the global economic crisis, climate change and the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations. “We must all sit down together in a responsible manner, bring our part of the solution to the table and allow a conclusion to be reached that benefits us all.” While “rhetoric and reality all too often diverge by large margins,” Leuthard said, the bottom line is that “people need jobs and a salary.” She concluded: “We have talked enough. It is now time to get moving.”

Earlier, World Economic Forum Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab warned of the consequences if countries are too preoccupied by domestic problems and ignore long-term challenges such as global warming. “We hope that governments don’t become overwhelmed by internal issues and constraints to the detriment of exercising the necessary global stewardship.” Added Schwab: “We run the risk that 2010 becomes the year of the social crisis following the financial crisis of 2008 and the economic crisis of 2009.” He noted that one of the top priorities for this Annual Meeting is to encourage entrepreneurship and job creation.

first u.k. service pilot flies the lockheed martin f-35

 

patuxent river, Md., Jan. 27, 2010 – A Royal Air Force officer on Tuesday became the first active-duty service pilot from the United Kingdom to take to the skies in a Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-35 Lightning II, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).

 

RAF Squadron Leader Steve Long piloted BF-2, the second short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B, over Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., logging the aircraft’s 18^th mission.  Long departed at 9:55 a.m. EST and flew the aircraft to 20,000 feet, before landing 1.3 hours later. Both the RAF and the Royal Navy plan to operate the F-35B.

 

“Flying the F-35 was exactly like the simulators that I've been flying for over 18 months now, which gives you a lot of confidence in all the modeling and simulation work that has been done in all the other areas of the flight envelope,” Long said, adding that it was a “privilege” to fly the F-35. “What this aircraft really gives the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy is a quantum leap in airborne capability because of the sensor suite it carries. An F-35 pilot will have an unprecedented level of situational awareness about what’s going on in the airspace around him or her, and also on the battlefield or ocean below.  Not only that, but the F-35 will plug into coalition battlefield networks and be able to pass that picture on to all other players in the network.”

 

With the capability to operate from a variety of ships or austere runways, the F-35B can deploy closer to shore or near front lines, shrinking distance and time to the target, increasing sortie rates and greatly reducing the need for support assets. The Lightning II's sensor suite is the most powerful and comprehensive of any fighter in history, and will combine with an unprecedented networking capability to give unparalleled situational awareness.

 

U.K. Joint Combat Aircraft Project Team Leader, Air Commodore Graham Farnell, has stated that the U.K. has been closely involved in JSF since its inception. “It is therefore an honour to witness an RAF pilot flying BF-2 during this important phase of the F-35B flight test, and further demonstrates the closeness and mutual trust between our respective nations and their armed forces,” Farnell said. “Squadron Leader Long has been preparing for this opportunity since his arrival in the U.S. well over a year ago, and this occasion is a testament not only to the work undertaken in the Integrated Test Force, to which the U.K. provides considerable expertise, but also to the wider JSF community in both government and industry.

 

“We look forward to the JSF flight test program meeting its targets in 2010, with today being one of many such occasions in the next year of JSF.  The U.K. is now preparing pilots and maintainers for initial training at Eglin so that we can begin operating our aircraft in 2011 alongside our colleagues from the United States Marine Corps,” he said.

 

Squadron Leader Long is the third active-duty service member to fly the F-35. (The jet also has been flown by U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps pilots.) Long has more than 2,200 hours of flight time and currently flies the F-18A-D with the U.S. Marines. He joined the RAF in 1995, and his operational experience has included more than 100 sorties over Kosovo and Bosnia, Sierra Leone and Iraq, including three months of embarked time aboard H.M.S. Illustrious, and seven months on the U.S.S. Bonhomme Richard.

 

The U.K. has invested $2 billion in the F-35’s development – the largest contribution among the program’s eight partner nations. The Joint Combat Aircraft (JCA) program announced in December that the United Kingdom received financial approval to purchase its third F-35B operational test aircraft, reinforcing the U.K.’s continued commitment to the JSF program’s upcoming Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) phase.

 

The F-35 Lightning II is a 5^th generation fighter, combining advanced stealth with fighter speed and agility, fully fused sensor information, network-enabled operations, advanced sustainment, and lower operational and support costs. Lockheed Martin is developing the F-35 with its principal industrial partners, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems. Two separate, interchangeable F-35 engines are under development: the Pratt & Whitney F135 and the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team F136.

 

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2008 sales of $42.7 billion.