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Monday, April 20, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon O'Donnell.

Making headlines today:

On Monday, the president of China National Coal Group Corp, Wang An, said that the Chinese government should postpone its plan to increase resource tax as part of reforms due to concerns over added pressures on downstream users.

He said that coal miners already have a heavy tax burden. As coal prices were sliding, higher resource tax would further pressure downstream users.

The company is China's number two coal miner and the parent of China Coal Energy Company. Wang said it targeted an annual sales revenue of 150-billion-yuan and an annual profit of 20-billion-yuan in the next five years.

On Friday morning, a mineworker died at AngloGold Ashanti's Moab Khotsong mine, near Klerksdorp, in South Africa.

Patrick Sinono, a miners assistant, was fatally injured in a "fall of ground incident" while barring at a stope face.

AngloGold said that no other employees were injured in the incident.

Also making headlines:

Russian gold producer Peter Hambro posts higher earnings.
Delayed iron ore talks favour miners as Chinese steel output grows.
Australia's Fortescue Metals has had discussions with a range of parties on future investment and finance opportunities.
And, minerals explorers Canadian Gold Hunter and Suramina Resources now go ahead with the merger.

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