Extractive Industries

A union representative is accused of beating a rival over the head with a walkie-talkie during a factory protest yesterday in the latest burst of violence in one of Cambodia’s special economic zones. Bou Sokray, 25, a representative for the Coalition of Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union ...

Economy and Finance Minister Keat Chhon yesterday urged consumers to limit their gasoline consumption in the face of rising prices, saying the Cambodian government would not boost the hundreds of millions of dollars he claimed it already offered in fuel subsidies. Speaking at the Ministry of ...

Almost 200 mining companies currently hold government licenses to mine construction materials such as granite, or to extract minerals, while another 53 firms are licensed to explore for mineral wealth, according to a Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy report released Friday. Among these firms, 47 ...

Last year saw a record increase in economic land concessions and the area controlled by agro-industrial companies jumped to more than 2 million hectares nationwide, according to human rights groups who track such projects. Mining companies are also flocking to Cambodia and those already have ...

Cambodia’s Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy had issued mineral resource exploratory licenses to 24 local and foreign companies in the past year. According to the annual report of the ministry’s mineral resources department released on Friday, the firms are mostly Cambodian-owned ones and those from ...

Guangxi Nonferrous Metal Group invested $21.95 million in the construction of a steel processing plant, the data shows. The Chinese company planned to invest as much as $500 million in Preah Vihear province, China’s state-owned Xinhua news agency reported in November. China’s Xing Yuan Kang Yeak ...

Cambodia could overtake Thailand’s gem export market to the United States within five years, officials said yesterday. Thailand’s growing economic status could soon disqualify it for tax exemption when exporting gems to the US market, but Cambodia’s standing as a Least Developed Country would allow it ...

London-based checker of rare gems and jewellery Intertek has established a laboratory in Cambodia to help regulate and provide guidelines for the gem trade. Officially opening today, it is the Kingdom’s first gem laboratory. Intertek director in Cambodia Khut Sothy said the country had been ...

Most Cambodian university students have heard of their country’s fledging extractive industry. But with little access to information, few are aware of how revenue from this industry is being managed. Most of this information remains unavailable, and some are now voicing their concerns about corruption ...

Police in Siem Reap province said yesterday that they confiscated two trucks in Varin district Friday morning carrying 24,228 liters of gasoline believed to have been smuggled from Thailand. Soeun Sem, chief of the Siem Reap economic police, said that officers apprehended the two ...

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have decided not to investigate the Australian mining company OZ Minerals, saying information that the firm paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to family members of officials in the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy (Mime) when buying out its ...

Rolling blackouts that plagued Phnom Penh this week were the result of the city’s power supply being unable to meet demand as the country moves into the hot season, officials at state-owned Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) said on Friday. Power Outages rolled over the city this ...

The price of gasoline rose to a 5800 riel ($1.44) per liter Monday, a 14 percent rise since the beginning of the year. Economists and businesses yesterday said the high prices are having a negative impact on the economy, as everything from transportation companies to ...

The dispute that grounded a Tonlesap Airlines plane on Tuesday and stranded more than 200 passengers in Siem Reap and Taipei, Taiwain, continued yesterday, as plane owner Far Eastern Transport upped the sum it claimed Tonlesap owed for fuel. Far Eastern grounded a plane it had ...

After more than three years of disappointment in its search for large gold deposits in Mondolkiri province, Australian mining firm OZ Minerals has decided to sell its Cambodian assets to another Australian company In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange, OZ Minerals said that it ...

The bilateral relations between Cambodia and China in terms of investment, trade and tourism have become stronger in the past year thanks to the two countries’ good relations, said officials Friday. Cambodia attracted China’s investments of 1.19 billion U.S. dollars in 2011, up 71 percent from ...

A Thai energy firm has completed a study for a 1,800-megawatt coal power plant in Koh Kong province, and had asked for Prime Minister Hun Sen’s support in furthering the project, government officials confirmed yesterday. The plant would be the largest power generator in the energy-starved ...

Chinese businessman Cha intor and president of coal mining group from China decided to invest the opening of Khmer economic magazine in Phnom Penh to boost the close ties for China and Cambodia and also it will enhance traditional media in the country. The announcement ...

The Kingdom’s much-hyped deadline of tapping its first oil reserves by December 12 2012, or 12-12-12, will not be met, a government spokesman said yesterday. Chevron Overseas Petroleum (Cambodia) Ltd, which is now exploring the Kingdom’s offshore Block A in the Gulf of Thailand, has notified ...

Deputy Prime Minister Sok An has told Iran’s ambassador to Cambodia that once an oil refinery in the country is operational, Cambodia would be able to import crude oil from Iran and export refined oil products to China, the Council of Ministers said on its ...

The government said yesterday that a gold mine in Kompong Cham province that has damaged about 1 square km of land with chemical waste would cost at least $4 million to clean up. Speaking at a workshop in Phnom Penh on revenue transparency, Sim Sisokhaly, director ...

Authorities in Phnom Penh’s Dangkao district have ordered a land excavation company to stop digging an enormous quarry in Prek Kampoes commune that villagers claim has damaged surrounding rice paddies. Last Wednesday, about 100 villagers blocked National Road 2, burning car tires in protest against the ...

Deputy Prime Minister Sok An will meet Thai Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan on Thursday to discuss the possibility of extracting oil from disputed maritime areas in the Gulf of Thailand, Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said yesterday. Mr Siphan said that Mr Sok An, who ...

THE precious stone industry in Pailin province is facing bankruptcy as supplies dwindle and locals turn to agriculture as their main source of revenue, provincial authorities told the Post. Pailin, long known for its rubies, sapphires and other precious stones, now depends on foreign imports to ...