MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Coal viability project in Punta Arenas.
US consumer confidence collapse.

Corfo, the official Chilean promotion corporation was granted a fifteen years mining lease in an island rich in coal reserves to the north of Punta Arenas. If exploratory geological surveying in the “Estancia Invierno” complex of Riesco Island concession indicates the commercial viability of the project, exploitation is expected to begin in twelve months.

Primary information points to the possibility of an annual production of 400,000 tons of lignite for the Chilean market with a direct generation of fifty jobs and many more indirectly.

However one of the clues to the success of the project is that the mine is open sky with low extraction costs and affordable transport logistics to the north of Chile where most thermoelectric plants are locates.

The Estancia Invierno reserve in Riesco Island, next to the Fitz Roy channel, covers an area of over 4,000 hectares and surveys done between 1978 and 1981 indicate that the area could hold 670 million tons of coal, of which 270 million in proven reserves. The calorific potential of this sub bituminous type of coal has been calculated between 4,300 and 5,500 units per kilo

US consumer confidence collapse

Consumer confidence in the United Status during February dropped to its lowest level in ten years according to a release from The Conference Board, a New York private sector assessment group.

The index that measures US consumers confidence fell 15 points in February from 78,8 in January, reaching 64 points. Last December it stood at 80,7 points.

The situation even surprised Wall Street analysts who were expecting a modest fall with the index remaining in the 75/77 points range.

Stagnant labour and financial markets, growing costs of fuel (gasoline gallon is above 2 US dollars) and fears of a possible war with Iraq are blamed for the poor showing.

"This month's reading is showing a sombre picture of current economic conditions without an apparent recovery in the short term", indicated Lynn Franco an economist from The Conference Board.

February's reading was the lowest since October 1993 when it reached 60,5 points.