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Tuesday, April 14, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.

Making headlines today:

On Monday, a Chinese government official said that China's iron ore imports surged in February and March because of "fake demand" brought about by stockpiling. Liang Shuhe, the vice-chairman of the Ministry of Commerce's Foreign Trade Department said that they are likely to fall off over the rest of the year.

He said that the increase in steel production in January and February didn't lead to an increase in end-user demand, but all ended up in inventories.

In response to the "fake demand" at the beginning of the year, China's steel mills and traders made the mistake of increasing their orders for iron ore, leading to record imports in February and March.

On Tuesday, Alaskan opposition to Anglo American's Pebble project intensified when six UK jewellers joined the fray in London, saying "no to dirty gold".

Anglo American investor relations spokesperson Anna Poulter said that, while there would be gold by-products, Pebble was primarily a copper project.

Poulter said Anglo didn't view gold mining as core to its business, adding that Pebble was still a project and not a mine.

Also making headlines:

US copper is at a 6-month high on Chinese demand prospects.
Mali names its new mines minister.
One-billion-rand in liquid assets remains locked up as the JCI/R&E merger is voted down.
And, Guinea aims to cancel its alumina refinery sale.

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