MINING.COM Staff Writer

Saudi Arabian Mining Company, also known as Ma’aden, and Alcoa, the aluminium giant, have secured the funds for Ma’aden Bauxite and Alumina Company, which is 74.9% and 25.1% owned by the two companies, respectively. The company will oversee the construction of a bauxite mine and an alumina refinery, which will cost $3.6 billion, part of the $10 billion Ma’aden-Alcoa joint venture project that will also see the construction of an aluminium smelter and rolling mill at Ras Az Zawr.

DeLorme, the innovation leader in navigation technology, today announced the Fall 2011 release of the DeLorme® inReach™, the first Iridium-based personal communicator to deliver truly global two-way satellite text messaging; delivery confirmations; SOS capabilities; remote tracking, and an Android smartphone interface.

SGS will expand and consolidate its Greater Vancouver operations into a multi-service laboratory in the City of Burnaby, British Columbia. The new 63,000 square foot laboratory will merge three of the existing SGS facilities in the Greater Vancouver area. It is anticipated that the laboratory will open in April 2012. Current SGS service offerings and offices in this area will remain operational until opening of the new facility.

Employees living in remote mining sites can now keep in touch, remain informed and be entertained through a single service being launched by Telstra. The Telstra Smart Camp Services™ provides a telephone service, television channels, movies on demand and a high-speed broadband connection delivered out of the Telstra cloud to individual IPTV set-top-boxes.

New Statscan data on the first quarter population estimates for the country and the provinces shows Alberta's population reached 3,758,200 at the end of March, an increase of just under 15,500 since the start of the year. Net inflows were the highest since 2006.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is slated to vote on a bill aimed at accelerating federal approval of a controversial pipeline that would expand U.S. imports from Canada’s oil sands projects. The oil industry-backed bill – which House GOP leadership hopes to bring before the full chamber this summer – would require an Obama administration decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline by Nov. 1.