Zambia has finally yielded to pressure, easing tax regulations that have deprived mining companies operating in the country from refunds estimated at more than $600 million.

The new rules, effective Monday, will allow exporters to provide import documents from transit countries instead of forcing them to only document the final destination — something companies claim is almost impossible, Reuters reports.

The decree only applies to future payments and not amounts already owed, with the revenue authority planning to start talks over the backlog “on a company-by-company basis.”

Africa’s second-largest copper producer has been withholding value-added tax payments from miners and other exporters. Authorities argue they were needed to curb tax avoidance, but the move mostly caused mine closures and thousands of job losses.

One of the first companies to act on it was gold giant Barrick (TSX:ABX), which announced it would suspend operations at its Lumwana copper mine, and would start laying off workers in March putting close to 4,000 jobs at risk.

Fellow Canadian miner First Quantum Mineral (TSX:FM), Zambia’s largest foreign investor, warned that the new tax system would “inevitably” lead to fewer new jobs and dissuade entrepreneurs from investing in the country. Earlier in the year, the company delayed investment projects worth $1.5 billion in Zambia due to uncertainty over the fiscal regime.

Glencore (LON:GLEN), the world’s third-largest miner by market value, also did its part by halting operations at its Sable Zinc Kabwe mine.

Zambia eases tax rules, to start refund talks on a ‘company-by-company basis’

Had better get their asses  out of there and leave the “Heavy Weapons” behind   while they still can !   Thats the message of the latest events you won’t hear from Western Media ….

When that happins a real cxease fire and  another bumbling Foreign policy of Oblabla  will show its face ….

Kiev says cannot withdraw heavy weapons as attacks persist

(Reuters) – Ukraine’s military said on Monday it could not start withdrawing heavy weapons from the front line in the east as required under a tenuous ceasefire because pro-Russian separatists who advanced last week were still attacking its positions.

A truce to end fighting that has killed more than 5,600 people appeared stillborn last week after rebels ignored it to capture the strategic town of Debaltseve in a punishing defeat for Kiev.

Nevertheless, the peace deal’s European sponsors still hold out hope it can be salvaged, now that the Moscow-backed separatists have achieved that objective.

Kiev says it fears the rebels, backed by reinforcements of Russian troops, are planning to advance deeper into territory the Kremlin calls “New Russia”. Moscow denies aiding the rebels.

more http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/23/us-ukraine-crisis-idUSKBN0LR0L920150223

Alan Greenspan Warns: There Will Be a “Significant Market Event… Something Big Is Going To Happen”

snip

We asked him where he thought the gold price will be in five years and he said “measurably higher.”

In private conversation I asked him about the outstanding debts… and that the debt load in the U.S. had gotten so great that there has to be some monetary depreciation. Specially he said that the era of quantitative easing and zero-interest rate policies by the Fed… we really cannot exit this without some significant market event… By that I interpret it being either a stock market crash or a prolonged recession, which would then engender another round of monetary reflation by the Fed.

He thinks something big is going to happen that we can’t get out of this era of money printing without some repercussions – and pretty severe ones – that gold will benefit from.

more http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-22/alan-greenspan-warns-there-will-be-%E2%80%9Csignificant-market-event-something-big-going-hap

Rent walkouts point to strains in U.S. farm economy

(Reuters) – Across the U.S. Midwest, the plunge in grain prices to near four-year lows is pitting landowners determined to sustain rental incomes against farmer tenants worried about making rent payments because their revenues are squeezed.

Some grain farmers already see the burden as too big. They are taking an extreme step, one not widely seen since the 1980s: breaching lease contracts, reducing how much land they will sow this spring and risking years-long legal battles with landlords.

The tensions add to other signs the agricultural boom that the U.S. grain farming sector has enjoyed for a decade is over. On Friday, tractor maker John Deere cut its profit forecast citing falling sales caused by lower farm income and grain prices.

Many rent payments – which vary from a few thousand dollars for a tiny farm to millions for a major operation – are due on March 1, just weeks after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated net farm income, which peaked at $129 billion in 2013, could slide by almost a third this year to $74 billion.

The costs of inputs, such as fertilizer and seeds, are remaining stubbornly high, the strong dollar is souring exports and grain prices are expected to stay low.

How many people are walking away from leases they had committed to is not known. In Iowa, the nation’s top corn and soybean producer, one real estate expert says that out of the estimated 100,000 farmland leases in the state, 1,000 or more could be breached by this spring.

The stakes are high because huge swaths of agricultural land are leased: As of 2012, in the majority of counties in the Midwest Corn Belt and the grain-growing Plains, at least 40 percent of farmland was leased or rented out, USDA data shows.

“It’s hard to know where the bottom is on this,” said David Miller, Iowa Farm Bureau’s director of research and commodity services.

more http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/23/us-usa-grains-rents-insight-idUSKBN0LR0EX20150223

“T shirt”

I think you have a winner there! 🙂

Okie Doke. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t growing anything questionable. 😉

AngloGold Output Rises for 2nd Straight Year; Costs Fall 13%

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/anglogold-output-rises-2nd-straight-061246030.html

Klondex Reports Initial Fire Creek and Midas Mineral Reserves

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/klondex-reports-initial-fire-creek-113000717.html

Sandspring Announces Information on Silver Resource at Toroparu Project and Initiation of Discussions to Secure Additional Funding Utilizing the Silver Resource

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sandspring-announces-information-silver-toroparu-120000111.html

First Majestic Announces Financial Results for Q4 and Year End 2014

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/first-majestic-announces-financial-results-120000589.html

Great Panther Silver Increases Indicated Resources by 31% and Inferred Resources by 162% at the San Ignacio Mine

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/great-panther-silver-increases-indicated-133000208.html

Sandstorm Gold Announces 2014 Production, Provides Corporate Update

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sandstorm-gold-announces-2014-production-141200650.html

http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-02-23

Market’s moving!  So we start out on a Chessie Steam special gold train…  now leaving.  All Aboard!

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=519840

stinging nettles grow wild here also. The “makins” for those left handed cigarettes also grow wild here as well as the cultivated stuff.

rno

Maybe that missing Minot ND nuke that was supposed to go to Barksdale AFB did a uturn and ended up next door in Minnesota. Apparently the Mall of America needs a demo job just like WTC.

Sorry Winnipeg, your NWO legislature building is to become contaminated…

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-22/department-homeland-security-issues-warning-after-mall-america-terror-threat#comments

You watch, we’ll be leading the charge in Ukraine.

Scratch that, our Javelin’s are already there.

And I’m betting dollars to donuts that North American merc caught on tape yellin “Get out of my face” was from Luceland Saskatchewan. Bull hunk capital that Sask, where Russian Standard vodka is banned. Good thing I’m in BC.

$1,150?

Did I mention that I know when gold will hit $5,000 an ounce?  The day after I turn up my toes…because that’s the way of it in life.

@ Silverngold…Stinging Nettle is one of the greatest nutritional herbs in all of nature, I deliberately raised it for years to tincture it for medicinal purposes and to steam it as a side veggie, or toss it into soup.  Healthy as all get out.

http://www.therebel.media/the_enemy_within_500_danish_muslims_go_to_terrorist_s_funeral

Everyones mind works differently, but what my mind sees from your “tomato” description is Stinging Nettle. That’s about how tall they grow here too. Not too bad as a green vegetable but only after careful harvesting and  boiling.

and the beat goes on…….

its those tomatoes with the long jagged leaves and the funny looking seed pod. Plants grow to 6 ft. +.

rno

out of the design and send it as a gift to Dr V.

Saudi men reportedly detained for dancing at birthday party

Published February 22, 2015
·Associated Press

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia’s morality police detained a group of young men for dancing at a birthday party and referred them to prosecutors, according to a state-linked media report.

The news website Ayn al-Youm reported Saturday that the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice raided a private property in the city of Buraydah, arresting the men inside for “loud music and inappropriate dancing.”

Buraydah is the provincial capital of Saudi Arabia’s Qassim province, which is home to some of the kingdom’s most conservative clerics, who practice a strict interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism.

An unnamed official told the website that when members of the morality police raided the private property, they found the young men in “a comprising situation in their dance and shameful movements.” The official said there was also a cake and candles to celebrate one of the men’s birthdays.

No details were released about how many men were arrested or their ages. The official did, however, say that the young men’s hairstyles and dress were not traditional, and urged parents to monitor this kind of behavior “because it can lead to immorality and even homosexuality.”

A hashtag on Twitter quickly went viral about the arrest, with many Saudis ridiculing the raid and pointing out that the men were not caught drinking alcohol or partying with women — both crimes in Saudi Arabia.

Others shared photos of Saudi royals performing a traditional men’s sword dance, though supporters of the raid claim that form of dance is socially acceptable and “masculine.”

Wahhabi clerics view Western music as sinful and birthday celebrations as un-Islamic. The morality police are empowered to enforce Islamic law as practiced in Saudi Arabia, including enforcing dress codes.

Shortly after King Salman ascended to the throne last month, he relieved Sheikh Abdullatif al-Sheikh — seen as a reformer– as head of the religious police and appointed Sheikh Abdulrahman al-Sanad to lead the force.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/02/22/report-saudi-morality-police-raid-private-residence-detain-men-for-dancing-at/

Did you draw that Commish? I like it!

Now you are really pissing me off! I’ve told you time and time again … stop peaking in my windows!