©Getty Trucks move ore at the Oyu Tolgoi mine in the south Gobi desert region of Mongolia. Rio Tinto is moving ahead with a $5.3bn expansion of its Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia, placing a bigger bet on long-term demand for the industrial metal but increasing its exposure to
5 July 2016 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal North Lincolnshire-based group Clugston has recorded a £2.2 million profit, according to its annual results for the financial year 2015-16. The group, which has operations in construction logistics, property and facilities management, revealed a £2.2 million pre-tax profit on a turnover of £143.4 million.
The founder of The Landscape Agency Patrick James, who created it as far back as 1998, has passed the baton of Managing Director to Alex Robinson. The Agency is reportedly very satisfied with this and are confident that the move will secure the long-running success of the company and ensure
Construction and landscaping specialist Crown Group is to play a leading role in the expansion of Warners Bros studios – home to blockbusters including Harry Potter and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. The Midlands-based company has secured a major landscaping project at the sprawling 150-acre Hertfordshire site as part of
A brand new interactive online tool has analysed 14,236 pieces of data across the 50 biggest British cities to help users determine whether relocating in 2017 would make them any better or worse off depending on their job. Jobs analysed include architecture, building surveyor, chartered surveyor, facilities management, project management,
Rural Housing / Taigheadas Dùthchail BBC ALBA, first episode Monday 23 January, 8.30pm – 9pm A new four-part series on BBC ALBA examines the dramatic development of rural housing In Scotland over the years. Builder Ewen MacKinnon, who has a passion for the beauty of construction, takes us on a
©Getty Trucks move ore at the Oyu Tolgoi mine in the south Gobi desert region of Mongolia. Rio Tinto is moving ahead with a $5.3bn expansion of its Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia, placing a bigger bet on long-term demand for the industrial metal but increasing its exposure to a country where it struggled for years to win approval for the project. The board of the Anglo-Australian miner signed off on a plan to more than double output at Oyu Tolgoi to 500,000 tonnes annually over the next decade, making it one of the world’s largest copper mines. More On this topic IN Mining Rio controls the mine through its majority ownership of Canada-listed Turquoise Hill, which owns 66 per cent of the project with the remainder held by Mongolia’s government. While copper prices are close to multiyear lows, miners including Rio expect a healthier outlook for the metal over the medium term, with falling output from existing mines. One common piece of conventional wisdom in the industry is that a project the size of Escondida — the world’s largest copper mine, with more than 1m tonnes of annual production, where Rio is a minority shareholder — is needed each year just to keep pace with the natural decline from older mines. Rio, one of the world’s largest miners of iron ore, has been expected to increase its focus on copper. The group recently said it would replace Sam Walsh, chief executive for the past three years, with Jean-Sébastien Jacques, who headed its copper operations over the same period. Rio first invested in Mongolia more than a decade ago in the first, open-pit phase of Oyu Tolgoi, which went into production in 2013. But the miner battled with Mongolian authorities for several years over the terms for an underground expansion, which Rio said would bring more of the overall profits from the project. Mr Jacques, who headed the last years of talks with Mongolia over the mine and will take over as Rio’s chief executive in July, said the Oyu Tolgoi expansion would mean “unlocking 80 per cent of its value”. “Long-term copper fundamentals remain strong and production from the Oyu Tolgoi underground will commence at a time when copper markets are expected to face a structural deficit,” he said. Myles Allsop, analyst at UBS, said Oyu Tolgoi was “still a high risk project” for Rio because of potential further disputes with Mongolia. “We see a number of potential areas of contention medium term, including the use of cash, power supply, smelter construction, as well as taxes,” Mr Allsop said in a research note that also highlighted risks from the project’s reliance on a single customer — China — and the technical challenges of the underground development. The expansion is one of the largest projects sanctioned by a global miner since commodities went into a sharp downturn. Across the industry, companies have been ratcheting back their capital spending. Rio’s annual investment budget for this year is $4bn, compared with more than $17bn in 2012. But miners that do have funds to commit to projects are expected to benefit from cheaper production and labour costs than during the sector’s boom years, when skilled staff were scarce and machinery was in short supply. Rio agreed $4.4bn of project financing for the development in December, with an option for a further $1.6bn of debt. The first phase of Oyu Tolgoi has already cost almost $7bn. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016. You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web. Source link
5 July 2016 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal North Lincolnshire-based group Clugston has recorded a £2.2 million profit, according to its annual results for the financial year 2015-16. The group, which has operations in construction logistics, property and facilities management, revealed a £2.2 million pre-tax profit on a turnover of £143.4 million. Although down from the previous year – the highest in Clugston’s history – these results were considered a solid set of figures for a group whose main activities are carried out in some of the UK’s most competitive sectors. Investment in the FM business enabled the division to increase its workload by securing further orders in the chemical, education and industrial sectors. With the majority of these long-term contracts, Clugston has introduced new services in fire prevention, HVAC maintenance and energy management to support existing and new customers. Source link
The founder of The Landscape Agency Patrick James, who created it as far back as 1998, has passed the baton of Managing Director to Alex Robinson. The Agency is reportedly very satisfied with this and are confident that the move will secure the long-running success of the company and ensure the future is forever bright at The Landscape Agency. Mister Robinson’s background is not that of a new outsider: he has been with the company for the last seven years as a Senior Landscape Architect and seems to be fully at home within his new position. Commenting on his new appointment, Mister Robinson expressed his unadulterated passion for landscaping architecture. It is clear that when Robinson looks at a large tract of space, what he does not see is a mere plot of land but a goldmine of various different possibilities, a Pandora’s Box of architectural landscaping potential. As for the founder Patrick James, he will still oversee the future of TLA but in a less managerial position, acting instead in the more stately role as its Director and Founder. Mister James is pleased by this sequence of events, and sees the appointment of a new managing director to his company as a way to celebrate its upcoming 20th birthday with the style and panache that it so blatantly deserves. Based in York, The Landscape Agency has worked with numerous leading architects and concerns itself with subjects in the field as diverse as land regeneration to country houses and stately homes. Their rapport with environmentalists and concern for the ecosystem has also ensured that The Landscape Agency maintains good relations and an equable balance between modern 21st Century development and preserving the wonderful natural landscapes and vistas that the British public hold with such pride and high regard. And with a new enthusiastic Managing Director at its helm with experience from within the company itself, it seems that things can only get better for The Landscape Agency.
Construction and landscaping specialist Crown Group is to play a leading role in the expansion of Warners Bros studios – home to blockbusters including Harry Potter and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. The Midlands-based company has secured a major landscaping project at the sprawling 150-acre Hertfordshire site as part of the latest instalment of the multi-million pound studios’ expansion. Warners Bros is constructing additional sound stages, workshops, a multi-storey car park and a state of the art graphics and design space at Leavesden. A Landscape Planting Strategy, which includes substantial new planting along the western edge of the backlot and in and around the Studio Tour car park extension, will be delivered by Crown Group. Managing director Gareth Emberton said the contract due to complete by Spring 2017 was the latest in a string of business wins for the sub-contractor, which has doubled in size in the last year. He said: “We are passionate about construction and horticulture working hand in hand and we’ve delivered commercial landscaping schemes successfully across the UK for some time. “However, our long term strategy was always to expand our core business, developing more of an integrated approach to the design, building and maintenance of construction and landscaping projects. We’re seeing the result of this in the last year. “We’re seeing the result of this in the last year with a number of high-profile contracts, including this one at the home of cinema’s greatest movies, including Casablanca and of course, the Harry Potter films. “The contract at Warner Bros supports the master plan for the next ten years for the site which attracts more than five million visitors a year.” The Group is also seeing significant growth in its facilities management and environmental management divisions. And Gareth is convinced this is because top construction contractors, whether working on key infrastructure projects such as HS2 or private sector investments like Warners Bros, want contractors who can solve problems. Gareth said: “Our focus is always on how we can innovate the process, to help the construction giants we work with, such as Bowmer & Kirkland and Galliford Try, save time and money.” One of the key factors in our growth has been our ability to not just provide the materials and the manpower, but to work in partnership with leading contractors to plan properly. “We understand how construction works, as the key is to deliver a living product, which both the clients and planners are happy with. This needs to happen during at times complex construction processes and site specific issues and constraints. The aim is always to deliver a high quality project, with a supply chain which spans Europe, nurturing the completed project through it’s establishment and ongoing maintenance through to maturity.” For more information on Crown Group, visit http://www.crownlandscapes.com or call 01743 709411.
A brand new interactive online tool has analysed 14,236 pieces of data across the 50 biggest British cities to help users determine whether relocating in 2017 would make them any better or worse off depending on their job. Jobs analysed include architecture, building surveyor, chartered surveyor, facilities management, project management, quantity surveyor and site manager. Average salaries by job and location, property costs, the average fees associated with moving home and the number of jobs in each field per 10,000 people have all been analysed to help users of a brand-new tool work out whether a 2017 move to a new UK city would benefit them financially or leave them worse off. The Best UK City widget, built by www.Web-Blinds.com, asks users to choose an occupation from an extensive drop-down menu and state the city they live in or a city they are considering relocating to. The tool then directs users to a series of in-depth results pages, showing how each city compares to the rest when it comes the cost of moving and setting up home, the number of job opportunities and an overall table. For example, for Building Surveyor jobs, London scores 39/49 overall, with the following rankings: 3/49 in terms of salary, with an average annual income of £41,254 49/49 in terms of the cost of property and average fees/furnishings, with an average cost of £616,944 12/49 in terms of job opportunities, with 38.31 jobs per 10,000 people LINK TO TOOL: https://www.web-blinds.com/resources/city-jobs-comparison/ Kirsty O’Sullivan, spokesperson for www.Web-Blinds.com, said: “People move to the big city for many reasons – but an improved pay packet is often high among them. That said, people could end up worse off if they move to a city with high accommodation costs. After all, what’s the point in moving for an extra £100 a month if your mortgage jumps up by even more?”
Rural Housing / Taigheadas Dùthchail BBC ALBA, first episode Monday 23 January, 8.30pm – 9pm A new four-part series on BBC ALBA examines the dramatic development of rural housing In Scotland over the years. Builder Ewen MacKinnon, who has a passion for the beauty of construction, takes us on a fascinating and revealing journey through Scotland’s rural housing landscape – telling a story of place, people and home. The history of traditional buildings in the Highlands and Islands resonates particularly with people today as an increasing number of people are choosing to build new homes using the materials from early 19th century homes and in line with much-loved styles such as the blackhouse. The first programme takes a look at some examples of the earliest dwellings in Scotland, dating back to the Iron Age. The programme explores their key qualities, and what they teach us about those who lived there. Over the generations, we can see the changing relationship between crofters and their animals, the changing status of crofters and the relationship between Islanders and outside influences. Amongst the buildings we visit – the impressive Isle of Lewis stone structures, the Bosta Iron Age House on Great Bernera, Uig the Norse Mill in nearby Shawbost, the s-shaped house named Oran na Mara on Harris, the Hebridean Earth House on South Uist and the Carloway broch, Isle of Lewis. These structures have also inspired numerous impressive new island homes. We also find out about the fascinating wooden crannogs, which were built on stilts on Scotland’s lochs, the restored Gearrannan Blackhouse Village on Lewis which has a new life as holiday accommodation and visit a unique reconstruction in Perthshire. Rural Housing / Taigheadas Dùthchail – a stylish new series which explores the many unique elements of our built landscapes, and their influence on the dwellings we live in today. Rural Housing, a four-part series produced by MacTV for BBC ALBA, will be broadcast on Monday 23 January, 8.30pm – 9pm and thereafter on Monday 30th January, 6th February and 13th February at 8.30pm.
