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Tuesday, August 25, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Jonathan Faurie.

Making headlines today:

Black economic-empowerment company Aurora Empowerment Systems has bid R215-million for the provisionally liquidated assets of Pamdozi Gold Orkney and has undertaken to preserve all jobs.

The joint provisional liquidators announced on Monday that Aurora had been selected as the preferred bidder.

One of the liquidators, Enver Motala, described Aurora as a well-capitalised company that had local and Middle Eastern shareholders.

He said that Aurora had undertaken not to retrench any of the permanent 1 500 employees of Pamodzi Gold Orkney, who would all be eligible for the company's share incentive scheme.

St Louis-based coal-miner Peabody Energy has adjusted the reporting channels for its coal sales and coal trading units, to reflect the company's focus on expanded access to the fast-growing Asia-Pacific markets.

The president of the CoalSales business, Bryan Galli, will now be responsible for the sale of all the company's coal, including US and Australian metallurgical, thermal and industrial products.

In Australia, Peabody is seeking to grow coal production from metallurgical and thermal coal mines in Queensland and New South Wales and the company is "rapidly increasing" its trading activities in the Asia-Pacific region, including developing a new Southeast Asia coal trading, brokerage and sourcing hub, planned for either Hong Kong or Singapore.

It already has offices in Brisbane, Sydney, Newcastle, Beijing, London, Venezuela and the US.

Also making headlines:

Pike River Coal delays exports from its New Zealand mine.
Murray & Roberts Cementation strike averted as the company reaches a wage deal.
Chinese iron-ore prices fall owing to demand drop.
And, Peru says copper output falls in July.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories please visit miningweekly.com.