A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Former ESB chief Joe Moran dies
The death has taken place of Joe Moran, a former chief executive of the ESB. He was aged 73.
A native of Castlebar, Mr Moran joined the ESB in 1950 and served in various roles throughout the company. He was appointed ESB Group director of finance in 1986 and chief executive in 1991, a position he held until his retirement from the company in August, 1997.
Joe Moran was also a former chairman of the National Treasury Management Agency and served on the board of Peamount Hospital for many years. He is survived by his wife Cathleen and his three sons and daughter.
Solicitor appointed to Aer Lingus board
A leading Dublin solicitor, Francis Hackett, has been appointed to the board of Aer Lingus. Mr Hackett is managing partner of legal firm O'Donnell Sweeney. The appointment was made by Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen. Mr Hackett is a former corporate counsel for Eircom.
Glencar signs deal with gold producer
Irish gold explorer Glencar Mining has signed a binding agreement with Gold Fields, the world's fourth-largest gold producer, that will give the South African producer a 65 per cent stake in Glencar's exploration licenses at a Mali mining project.
It follows a non-binding deal in September with Gold Fields that commits the gold producer to spending $12 million (€10 million) on feasibility and exploration studies to gain a stake in three of the five licences to explore Glencar's Sankarani project in Mali.
"The terms are very favourable to Glencar, securing a substantial exploration expenditure on very prospective ground," the Irish company said yesterday.
The final agreement comes less than three months after the price of gold surged to a 23-year high, as investors sought a refuge from rising oil prices and inflation.
Gold Fields has agreed to provide funding for the exploration immediately, provided certain conditions are met. That would enable Glencar to begin field work within 10 days.If Glencar finds a commercial deposit in Mali, it will keep a 15 per cent interest in a producing mine, without having to raise more money to fund the cost of the mine.
Glencar, whose shares began trading on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in September, also has operations in Uganda, Ireland and Ghana.
Explorer upbeat on mining results
Conroy Diamonds and Gold said that it received more positive results from an ongoing programme of closely-spaced deep overburden sampling on 10 targets on its Longford-Down Massif licences. Six of the targets, first announced last April, have now been sampled this way and five have returned positive gold results.
The targets were originally defined by shallow soil geochemistry.
Pirelli to consider listing for tyre unit
The board of Italy's Pirelli group will meet today to consider listing shares in the firm's tyre unit, sources familiar with the situation said yesterday.
Pirelli said in a statement that its board will meet today to discuss a project to extract value from assets and will inform the markets if any decision is taken.
The unit, valued at up to €3 billion, could be listed by the summer.
"If market conditions are favourable, it is possible that the listing will come in the early summer, or during the summer in any case," one of the sources said. - (Reuters)
