General News

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese said ongoing tensions with Canadian partner Ivanhoe Mines would not hold back the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold project in Mongolia which he said could be brought on stream early. Albanese said in a television interview broadcast on Sunday he hoped to see first production from the mine in 2013, and said both Rio Tinto and Ivanhoe Mines were committed to its rapid development despite their disagreements. "It's very important for Rio Tinto. It's very important for Ivanhoe. It's also very important for Mongolia. It's a first class mine being built on time," Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) programme Inside Business. "I'd like to actually see it get sped up if we can, first production by 2013. It is on track as we speak." Last week Ivanhoe Mines said it would launch a rights offering worth up to $1 billion to raise funds for the project, which finally got the go-ahead from the...

Oct 24 (Reuters) - The Group of 20 major economies vowed to avoid competitive currency devaluations and shifted more power to emerging economies at the IMF, taking steps that analysts viewed as important for averting trade wars and promoting flexible exchange rates. Following is a summary of reserves reports issued by analysts about the G20 communique and outcomes following the gathering of finance ministers and central bankers.  --------------------------------------------------------- THOMAS STOLPER, CHIEF CURRENCY STRATEGIST, GOLDMAN SACHS, LONDON "The outcome of the G20 meeting clearly shows progress in the global rebalancing policy debate. In particular the FX relevant sections have become a lot more prominent and all the key issues have found some mention, including current account positions, protectionism, capital controls and exchange rate flexibility. "At the same time, this is not a Plaza-style statement that signals a broad agreement on the role currencies have to play in the global rebalancing. Just taking the first sentence of the FX bullet, the language is not tight enough to...

 GYEONGJU, South Korea (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner suggested that he sees no reason for the dollar to sink further against the euro and the yen, saying these major currencies are "roughly in alignment," the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. In an interview with the newspaper, Geithner also emphasized that the United States was not pursuing a deliberate policy of devaluing the dollar. This echoed comments he made on Monday in Palo Alto, California, saying "No country around the world can devalue its way to prosperity." In the Journal interview, he referred to three groups of currencies. In one, he put countries with currencies "undervalued by any measure" and in the second he put emerging economies with flexible exchange rates that intervene or impose taxes to try to reduce risks. "In the third group, he put "the major currencies, which are roughly in alignment now," a suggestion that he sees no need for the dollar to sink more than it already has...