News

An opposition lawmaker is calling for the government to publicise its licensing of Cambodian mines, claiming that parliament has never received formal documentation of licensed mining companies. In a letter to Minister of Industry Mines & Energy Suy Sem last week, Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Son ...

Thailand’s top energy company, has offered to buy out Singapore-listed Sakari Resources Ltd for $960 million as the oil and gas firm expands into coal to meet rising regional demand for the fuel On Aug. 13, Sakari announced a joint venture with the Royal Group of ...

Cambodians for Resource Revenue Transparency (CRRT) wrote a letter to Ms. Elizabeth M. Murphy, Secretary of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on February 7, 2012 to back up PWYP’s recommendations and to encourage the Commission to define the “Project” in relation to each lease, license ...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has adopted rules that would make it a legal requirement for listed companies operating in the extractive industries and doing business in Cambodia to disclose all major payments they make to the government. The rules, which were adopted in ...

BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest investment firm, has purchased a multi-million dollar stake in a mining firm with a gold exploration licenses in Cambodia. Stephen Promnitz, CEO of Indochine Mining, which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and holds a gold exploration license in Kratie ...

Despite touting its Cambodian venture on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (FSE), a British registered mining firm’s plan to extract gold in Ratanakkiri province stalled and the firm may face legal action over a failed deal to obtain an exploration license. Astra Resources Plc. has also gone ...

Renaissance Minerals announced Friday it has discovered a high-grade gold deposit in an area in Mondolkiri province that lies within the Australian firm’s Cambodian Gold Project. The new find is located about 500 meters to the northeast of the company’s Okvau exploration zone. The announcement comes ...

Political activists and watchdog organisations say Cambodia’s US$13 million revenue from the mining sector over the last five years is exceedingly low and that the government must be more transparent. The claims come after the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy (MIME) released its figures on the mining ...

Before the big dinner with Hillary Clinton, Prime Minister Hun Sen and the leaders of Thailand and Myanmar on July 13 in Siem Reap, Tom Whitcraft of RMA Group, which owns the Ford dealership in Cambodia, sat down for an interview. Whitcraft said Ford has about ...

A Chinese mining firm has donated about $200,000 toward the building of a new district headquarters for the ruling CPP in Preah Vihear province, officials said yesterday. Kong Makara, director of the provincial industry, mines and energy office, said that Chinese company Cambodian Iron Holding and ...

The protectionist bent of conservation groups and the development agenda of the government can come together in Cambodia to create a green economy. That is the message of a new book Conservation International (C.I.) launched yesterday in Phnom Penh, outlining practical options for saving the environment ...

Industries such as tourism and garment production are booming. Mining is taking off and the Cambodian Stock Exchange (CSX) is finally up and running after a 10-month delay with Phnom Penh Water Supply (PPWS) its first listing. “PPWS is considered one of the best managed state ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 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 ...

The Ministry of Environment has drafted a law that will hand out fines and prison terms for companies that fail to complete and submit Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) on the development projects they undertake. According to a copy of the EIA draft law, fines of 100 ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday outlined the government’s plans to spur economic growth in the northeast of the country through implementing a wide range of projects in sectors such as agriculture and the extractive industries. Rights workers have warned that little information on the plans for ...

Improved fiscal management and preparation for a decline in foreign aid would help increase Cambodia’s credit rating, according to a quarterly credit opinion from Moody’s Investor Service, which maintained a stable outlook for the country. Reduced exposure to crisis and stagnation in Western economies, continued foreign ...

China’s Erdos Hongjun planned to build a bauxite processing plant in Kratie province as part of the company’s US$1.5 billion venture in the Kingdom’s northeast, provincial officials said yesterday. The plant would serve Erdos’s mine in neighbouring Mondulkiri, an exploration licence for which was granted by ...

Hundreds of villagers living around Prey Long forest have begun a weeklong campaign in the north of Kompong Thom province to protect Prey Long, one of Cambodia’s largest remaining primary forests, the Prey Long People’s Network said yesterday The group of villagers planned to protest later ...

Atok-Big Wedge Co. Inc., a listed company owned by the group of former Trade minister Roberto Ongpin, acquired Tidemark Holdings Ltd., a Hong Kong company that owns 25.9 percent of Forum Energy Plc, an oil and gas firm controlled by Philex Mining Corp. Atok-Big Wedge said ...

Cambodian officials say the country’s economic growth rate is set to exceed seven percent this year. According to financial analysts even if the global economy slows, Cambodia is well prepared to deal with it, partly because of strong foreign investment. But the billions of dollars ...

A new US commitment to oil and mining transparency may push the Kingdom closer to a similar agreement, Cambodian experts have said. US President Barack Obama announced earlier this week that the US would join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative as an implementing country, according to ...