2merkato

The Ethiopian Hansom International Glass factory, which had temporarily halted production due to hikes in international furnace oil prices, is to re-launch production according to Xia Yong, General Manager of the company.

The company found it hard to sustain production following the increase in the price of furnace oil from just 5 birr a liter before 2009 to 13 birr a liter said Yong. The factory suspended production activity in April 2010 and has reopened at this time after taking several steps to minimize costs.

Measures taken towards achieving this end include reducing the size of the furnace and diversifying the color of the product he noted.

The revenue earned from gold exports in the first quarter of the Ethiopian fiscal year is lower than anticipated according to a report from the Ministry of Mines. Gold exports were affected by lower than projected production by traditional miners and MIDROC holding on to 90% of its production over the period in anticipation of better prices.

The Ministry of Mines had anticipated 61 million US dollars in revenue from 1361.3 kilograms of gold to be produced by the Legedembi mine operated by MIDROC. The mine has an estimated annual production of 4500 kilograms of gold and 1195 kilograms were produced in the first quarter but the company sold just 10.8% of this production due to unfavorable pricing on the market it was said. 

Alecto Minerals shares advanced by more than 11% in early deals today as it released some of the findings from its first exploration program on its Wayu Boda gold concession in Ethiopia.

The exploration work comprised of geophysics, trenching, and geological mapping was focused on three areas that had been a focus of artisanal mining in the past. The miner took a total of 853 samples from 14 trenches. The highlight trenching results included intervals ranging from 1.3 meters to 14 meters with grades of 1.1 grams per ton (g/t) to 4.9 g/t.

It is to be remembered that Alecto reported initial sampling results which included grades of up to 47.4 grams per tonne gold last month.

The Ethiopian government officially inaugurated the Tourism Transformation Council and the Ethiopian Tourism Organization, entities established under the Council of Ministers Regulation No. 294/2013.

The government of Ethiopia has decided to merge Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) and Construction and Business Bank (CBB), Fana Broadcasting Corporate reported.