Business in brief: Cobalt mine wins approval

Boise – A Canadian mining company won initial federal approval for a plan to mine cobalt from deep beneath the central Idaho mountains.

Formation Metals Inc., a Vancouver, B.C.-based company, said Wednesday that winning the U.S. Forest Service’s blessing for the first stage of its operations plan means workers can log the mining site and build roads in January.

Mining is due to start in 2011 and could continue for 30 years, it said.

Cobalt is used in jet engines, hybrid vehicle batteries, prosthetic knees and hips, even radio frequency identification tags that help retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. track their products.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mari-Ann Green said Formation expects to employ 150 at the mine and another 77 people at the company’s existing smelter 200 miles to the northwest in Kellogg, where the cobalt will be refined.

Though the price of cobalt dropped from about $52 per pound in 2008 to $18 earlier this year, optimism that the worst of the recession is over is again pushing prices higher. It traded at about $23 this week, Green said.

Associated Press

Consumers buy big-ticket items

Los Angeles – Despite continued tough economic times, consumers were willing to shell out money for big-ticket items such as computers and flat-panel TVs during Black Friday and the following week, according to market research firm NPD Group.

The number of computers sold was up 63 percent over the previous year while TVs were up 15 percent, NPD said Wednesday in its report on consumer electronics spending.

But these gains were in large part because of steep price discounts. Overall spending on electronics was $2.7 billion, down 1.2 percent from last year.

That’s at least a smaller decline. In 2008, spending was down 3.4 percent.

Los Angeles Times

Bank bonuses hit with big tax

London – The British government slapped a one-time tax of 50 percent on fat bank bonuses on Wednesday as it tried to win over recession- weary voters ahead of a looming general election.

But Treasury chief Alistair Darling’s plan to exact payback for the crisis that led Britain into its worst recession since World War II faced criticism that it was at best political spin and would do little to raise revenue – and, at worst, would potentially damage London’s standing as a financial center.

Opposition politicians, the banking industry and many economists said the tax, to be levied on 2009 discretionary bonuses of more than $40,800, would do little to raise revenue and could turn investors away from London.

Associated Press