MINING.COM Staff Writer

VANCOUVER, Canada – July 5, 2011 – Gemcom Software International Inc., the largest global supplier of mining software solutions, today announced that Warren Johnstone has rejoined the company as vice president of global services. Mr. Johnstone previously served as regional vice president of Gemcom’s Africa business unit from 2004 to 2007. He has also overseen its operations in Europe, Australia and Asia. In his new role, he will work with the company’s global services teams to enable Gemcom’s clients to unlock the full value technology delivers.

Reuters reports Afghanistan has grand plans for a vast rail network to attract mining investors, but experts say the project would simply be a new target for insurgents and warn that sovereign risk and high production costs are also deterring companies. With an impoverished economy ravaged by more than three decades of war and corruption and now bank rolled by foreign aid, Afghanistan's government has pinned its hopes of rebuilding on untapped mineral resources of mainly iron ore and copper, which it has said could be worth up to $3 trillion.

Effective July 1, Atlas Copco's Portable Air Division is changing its name to the Portable Energy Division, a name which more accurately reflects the division’s extended product portfolio. The new Portable Energy division focuses on five “pillars”, each one relating to a product group: Air (on-site compressors), Power (on-site generators), Light (on-site light towers), Water (on-site pumps), and Used Equipment.