Sensational-Adelaide.com

momentkiller wrote:I bet someone saw my design and stole it!

Not that I wouldn't mind a little credit... but good to know that theyre coming up.

SA on a spending spree
ALEXANDRA TREDREA

December 04, 2007 12:15pm

SOUTH Australian shoppers spent $1.4 billion in October, with sales up 1.6 per cent, the highest rate of growth in the nation.

The key sales areas for SA retail in October were food ($584.2 million), hospitality and services ($218.3 million) and household goods ($210.8 million).

State Retailers Association executive director John Brownsea said he was surprised at SA's strong performance.

``We have got quite a good across the board peformance, whereas other states are all over the place,'' Mr Brownsea said.

``I would have to say retailing looks strong for the run up to Christmas.''

SA's building industry red hot

RUSSELL EMMERSON, REAL ESTATE EDITOR

December 04, 2007 03:00pm

SOUTH Australia's construction industry is heading into the "busiest time since the 1950s", the head of the Master Builders' Association says.

State chief executive Robert Stewart said today's building approval figures – which show a 5 per cent fall from last month's high but a 20 per cent increase since October last year – reflect a burning economy.

"While (the slight fall) might be a blip on the radar, I think . . . the construction industry is probably heading into the busiest time since the 1950s when you look at residential and industrial and commercial building," he said.

"If you speak with planners and architects, there is a significant amount of work in the pipeline waiting to be put to the market.

"There is $1.7 trillion in commercial infrastructure work that needs to be undertaken (across the country). It is a massive demand that is out there."

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported more than $325 million of buildings were approved in SA during October on a seasonally-adjusted basis - down almost 5 per cent from September, but 20 per cent higher than last year.

The bulk of this is residential buildings, which contributed $214 million, up 35 per cent from last year's $158 million.

While non-residential approvals were static, falling almost 1 per cent to $112 million, state education and aged care building approvals remained key drivers.

Housing Industry Association state director Robert Harding said the $60.5 million approved for the building of public schools reflected the state government's commitment to superschools and the need for higher infrastructure spending.

More than $35 million was approved for the building of privately-owned aged care facilities in October, he said.

"There is a very strong retirement marketing in SA at the moment and there are a number of big projects that have been finished and ar coming up strong," he said.

"While we are doing better in the property figures, it is still the fact we have the oldest population in Australia and not surprising to see a marketing being provided for that demand."

The number of approvals fell more than 21 per cent in the month, reversing part of September's 38 per cent jump.

Nationally, approvals fell 2.8 per cent in October. This should provide the Reserve Bank with fewer reasons to announce an increase in official interest rates tomorrow.

Coal Project Powers Ahead

CAMERON ENGLAND, CHIEF BUSINESS REPORTER
December 10, 2007 01:15am
A STUDY on the viability of a $3.7 billion power plant and mine in the State's Far North should be completed early next year.

London-based Altona Resources said last week it had made "solid progress" on a pre-feasibility study on the project and should be able to report back in the first three months of 2008.

The project involves a 10 million tonne-per-annum open-cut coal mine, a coal to liquids plant producing 10 million barrels of fuel per year and a 560 megawatt power station, the second largest in the state if it were built.

If the project were approved, which would be after a later definitive feasibility study, it would be built in two phases over 4 1/2 years, with the process taking seven to 10 years to complete.

The company expected to finish drilling at the Arckaringa Basin site by the end of the year in an attempt to ensure there was enough coal to justify the operation.

Altona chairman Chris Lambert said the coal to liquids process converted coal into more environmentally friendly energy sources such as gas and synthetic fuels.

The real attraction was SA's need for power. "According to official forecasts of electricity supply and demand by the South Australian Electricity Supply Industry Planning Council, South Australia is facing a 'reserve' supply deficit of over 500MW by 2016," he said.

"This does not include the more than 500MW of new power demand from BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam expansion project and other new mineral-based developments planned for the next decade. The state also imports all its petroleum fuel requirements, which are set to rise rapidly on the back of these developments."

The company believes once payment for the electricity was factored in, its production costs for diesel would be about $US20 a barrel. "This would place the project at the very low end of CTL industry operating cost benchmarks and indicates that it could make operating profits under virtually all future oil price forecasting scenarios," Mr Lambert said. The project even could become a water supplier, with mine de-watering expected to produce a surplus.

Altona also has signed a memorandum of understanding with FreightLink to transport liquid fuels from the project on the Adelaide to Darwin railway.

An application by Babcock and Brown and NP Power to build a 450MW gas-fired peaking power station at Redbanks, near Mallala, was approved by the Development Assessment Commission in June.

BHP expected to sweeten bid
By Andrew Trounson
December 15, 2007 12:00am

FUND managers are looking for BHP to sweeten its bid for Rio Tinto and believe this may be the final push needed to get Rio's board to engage in talks.

On Monday, Rio, frustrated by BHP's guerilla shareholder campaign against the board's intransigence, applied to the UK Takeover Panel to impose a deadline on BHP's unremitting calls for merger talks.

That deadline is likely to be announced in London on Monday or Tuesday and will give BHP six to eight weeks to raise its proposal enough to get Rio engaged, or go hostile, or walk way and not bid for at least six months.

Two days later on Wednesday, BHP hurriedly convened a media and investor presentation in London at which boss Marius Kloppers responded by reiterating his already rejected 3-for-1 offer.

He went further, attempting with mixed results to talk up his company and his management as being superior to Rio.

But for all the skirmishing, no side has landed a decisive blow. BHP and the market have been left pondering the undeniable fact that the Rio board is not talking and does not yet feel under pressure to talk.

The encouragement for BHP is that with 60-70 per cent of Rio's shareholders also having shares in BHP, shareholders are keen for a merger to be at least actively explored.

"The bottom line is that the two companies should be talking to each other, so perhaps locking the door isn't the best thing for Rio to do, but then being obstinate perhaps isn't the best decision on BHP's part," said BT Financial Group resources funds manager Tim Barker.

Certainly on Wednesday, Mr Klopper's presentation was all about showing that BHP was prepared to be exactly that - obstinate.

"There is no sense of urgency at all on this side and again discipline and value is what we are all about for our shareholders," Mr Kloppers said.

He sought to go further, playing down any sense that his ego might be invested in a deal being done. "I am a very small cog in a large wheel. Generations of management have worked on this."

But no one believes Mr Kloppers' first pitch was his best pitch. Since BHP shares are the buying currency in this proposed merger, Mr Kloppers' move on Wednesday may have been a tactical one to underscore his own share price as a prelude to raising his offer by the minimum he believes is needed to force Rio to relent.

But his effort on Wednesday to talk up BHP's stand-alone value and claim it was a better performing and managed company than Rio was a high-risk move that worked in some areas and backfired in others.

On the plus side, Mr Kloppers was able to highlight BHP's West Australian iron ore growth options through a potentially major, but woolly, expansion of the Port Hedland port.

That helped to counter Rio's claims that the merger proposal is largely driven by BHP's desperation to get Rio's neighbouring iron ore business, which boasts better port infrastructure.

But Mr Kloppers was not able to dispel investor nervousness over potentially massive blowouts in costs at the expansion of its huge Olympic Dam copper and uranium deposit in South Australia by changing from the current underground mine to an open pit the size of Adelaide's city centre.

While potentially the world's greatest single ore body - it is already the world's largest uranium and fourth-largest copper deposit - it is difficult for the market to value it when BHP is not yet sure how to develop it, by when and for how much.

And that has given free rein to fears that the costs could eventually blow out to as much as $US23 billion ($27 billion), compared with the $US5 billion former owner WMC had estimated for a doubling of output.

Analyst Michael Rawlinson of London-based broker Liberum Capital said this week that "guesstimates" of a $US20 billion cost "seem about right".

Mr Kloppers can justifiably argue that it may be too early to estimate the cost and timing for Olympic Dam and that it will be a multi-phased development over many years.

But his failure to put out any numbers undermines his effort to talk up its value relative to Rio Tinto.

"BHP hasn't added to its case. If anything, it has detracted from it by boosting its credentials somewhat opportunistically," Austock Securities resources analyst Tim Gerrard said in a research note yesterday.

While Mr Gerrard believes BHP's ultimate plans for Olympic Dam, and more than doubling of nickel output from its Cerro Matoso operation in Colombia, provide extra potential value, he notes these projects will not be fully delivering until 2018.

As a result, he maintained his previous call that BHP would have to raise its 3-for-1 offer to 3.9-for-1 to get Rio talking.

The rhetoric from BHP is that the market had it right and that as a result it is already offering a 28 per cent premium to where Rio shares were trading in October.

Any further increase is a direct value transfer from BHP shareholders to Rio shareholders which Mr Kloppers will have to justify.

According to Perennial Growth Management partner Ken West, who manages funds in both stocks, the key for a significantly increased BHP bid will depend on shareholders' view of the long-term benefits of a merger.

A higher bid "would be depressive in terms of returns on investment, but if we can see it being strongly accretive in the medium to long term, that would be something we'd take account of", Mr West says.

But if Mr Kloppers chooses to walk, the pressure will be on Rio boss Tom Albanese to justify and sustain the share price relativities that the proposal has crystallised. He undoubtedly fancies his chances, especially if the aluminium market strengthens, given that Rio's Alcan acquisition was predicated on a strong aluminium price outlook.

Rio was yesterday trading about 3.2 BHP shares. Before BHP's approach to Rio's board, the ratio was 2.4.

Mineral exploration boom continues

Date: 12 Dec 2007

South Australia’s mineral exploration expenditure rose for the fifth consecutive quarter in the September quarter 2007, outranking every state and territory except Western Australia.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for the 2007 September quarter show that mineral exploration in South Australia has grown to $87.2 million, compared with $51.1 million for the same period last year for an impressive 70.6% year-on-year increase.

Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Paul Holloway, says the 12-month total exploration expenditure of $296.9 million to September 2007 has almost tripled the $100 million target for 2007 set by South Australia’s Strategic Plan.

“For the third consecutive quarter South Australia has achieved a higher quarterly mineral expenditure level than Queensland, with only Western Australia ahead of our State,” Mr Holloway says.

“Of the $87.2 million spent in the quarter, $31.2 million was invested in the search for new mineral deposits with the remaining $56 million spent on the expansion and development of South Australia’s growing list of known mineral deposits.

“Most of the growth in this quarter is from the search for new mineral deposits with almost a 30% increase in expenditure in this area since the June 2007 quarter. This figure is more than double the $14.6 million reached in the September quarter 2006.”

Mr Holloway says the ABS figures also show there has been a strong increase in the search for iron ore and selected base metals including silver, lead and zinc.

“Based on total exploration expenditure for the 12 months to September 2007 South Australia’s share of national exploration spending is 15.5%,” Mr Holloway says.

“The ABS figures show the South Australian Government’s Plan for Accelerating Exploration – better known as PACE - initiative has been a great success and most deservedly received the recent Premier’s Award for Growing Prosperity in South Australia.

“All indications are that the State will continue to reap the rewards from PACE for some time to come.”

PACE was introduced by the State Government in July 2004 and has contributed to a surge in mining exploration and the identification of many potential new developments within South Australia.

Diamond wrote:Hmm I've seen more since then, and they've all been on cabs. Maybe it's a cab thing only?..

PhilM wrote:It is ever so dangerous to try and take off and fly like an eagle when you are being led by a Turkey!

Whilst the great unwashed of the middle and upper segments of society are doing well in spite of the State Government, heaven help anyone who falls short.

Look at the State of Families SA, the State of Mental Health, the State of our Hospitals, the State of our Schools, the State of WorkCover, the State of our Roads and the State of our Criminal Justice System just to name a few!

South Australia really is a wonderful State and has the potential to be the most liveable place on earth but unless this arrogant Government realise that there are many people that fall below the comfort line and whilst they may constitute the minority in each of the areas listed above, their collective voices will be heard!

For now however I think our number plate may as well call it like it is. SA - State of Despair