>A U.S. gallon of petrol or diesel is selling for about $1.50 (varies with
>octane/sulphur content). Large customers like the Sierrita mine negotiate
>their own rates with electric utilities, but I am guessing  that these were
>in the range $45-$50 per megawatt-hour for a long-term contract, as
>California (now experiencing the most severe power shortage ever) has
>received bids averaging around $69 per megawatt-hour on the spot
>market.Since almost all new power plants in the USA are gas-fired, demand
>has resulted in a doubling of natural gas prices since this time last year,
>which accounts in large part for the rapid run-up in electricity prices in
>much of the country.

Dear Dave
I appreciate your detailed reply. In Britain petrol and diesel is about
85 to 90 pence a liter which I think is about 4.6 US dollars per US
gallon.
Petrol is the same price in France but diesel is cheaper here at about
6.5 Francs per litre which is about 3.5 US dollars per US gallon.
I think it was about the same in Chile where I was working three years
ago.

That contrasts very starkly with about 40 US cents per US gallon that
were paying in Liberia at the Lamco Iron Mine 10 years ago, just before
the civil war started. The big difference was that in Liberia the fuel
was still counted as mining supplies so was not taxed. Of course there
were other problems in Liberia that compensated for the cheap fuel,

I guess I have gone through about 10 mine closures in my life. It's a
fact of life now. I see them as inevitable, as obviously they have to be.
Every orebody runs out sometime and the project becomes uneconomic. Yet
in another way it seems criminally wrong to let this happen. The
community has developed. Kids grow up there. Houses, townsites, roads,
waterworks, railroads, ports, hospitals, power stations, workshops,
churches, TV stations, Sports and social facilities are built and mature
into what seems permanent life. Then, bang, everybody has to pack and
move out, dispersing around the world..... So many friends who have
become family to you that you will never see again ....
Yet, when you are into all this, the excitement of the life, and the
intenseness of the friendships you make in such places, make it very hard
to settle into any other sort of life.

Thanks again for those figures
Alan