Two Canadian companies — Quinto Technology Inc. and Gowest Amalgamated Resources Ltd. — hope to find new sources of graphite and molybdenite at different locations in the country. Delta, B.C.-based Quinto reported additional results from a diamond drilling program completed this summer on graphite property at Lac Gueret, Quebec. The drilling program was designed to provide sufficient data to help support a bankable feasibility study, and results so far provide further definition of a...

Apollo Management L.P. has acquired GEs Advanced Materials business, a chemical company whose ceramics division makes boron nitride powders used as solid lubricants, coatingsand additives, for $3.8 billion. The Dec. 3 sale creates a new company, Momentive Performance Materials Inc., based in Wilton, Conn. The former GE Advanced Materials management team, led by president and Chief Executive Officer Wayne Hewett, will continue in their roles in the new business. In addition, the former joint vent...

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – For lubricants as for real estate, location plays a big role in what blenders will pay for base oils, and what offerings will be in short or long supply. With the global lubricants market growing just 1 to 3 percent annually through 2010, the outlook for base oil supply differs markedly by product and region, the ICIS Pan-American Base Oils & Lubricants Conference heard here last week. Consultant Thomas Glenn of Petroleum Trends International, Metuchen, N.J., offer...

Plant managers who work for U.S. lubricant manufacturing companies are paid an average of $99,672 a year, while their counterparts at lube distributors earn an average of $68,509, according to the latest Lubricants Industry Salary Survey conducted by LubesnGreasesmagazine. The typical plant manager who responded to the survey is 50.5 years old, and has more than 20 years of industry experience. He or she has been with the current employer for 13 years and in the current job for almost 8 years, ...

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Think oil prices are high now? Five-plus years out, its crystal clear that energy costs will rise steeply and the North American market will be at a strong competitive disadvantage, keynote speaker Andrew Weissman of FTI Consulting told the ICIS Pan-American Base Oils & Lubricants Conference here last week. Solutions involve using coal as a synthetic feedstock, Weissman contended, but that will take time. Our future success and survival depends on taking action to ...