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

Making headlines today:

On Monday, retail bank Absa signed a five-year 1,7-billion rand wide-area network deal with fixed-line telecom operator Telkom. This will connect over 2 500 Absa outlets through its flagship next generation network virtual private network Supreme solution.

Telkom will supply the bank with a secure virtual private network. It will allow for data transfer and interconnection between Absa branch networks, ATM networks and the bank's IT data centres.

This solution will serve as an upgrade to the bank's internal IT system. This will enable it to serve its clients more efficiently by improving data transmission time and bandwidth capacity. It will also reduce some disaster recovery risks in terms of regional outages.

Telkom CEO Reuben September:
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Agroprocessing firm Tongaat Hulett said on Monday that it could generate up to 266 MW of power in three years' time. This is if its builds cogeneration plants at four of its Southern African sugar mills.

CEO Peter Staude said that all four projects are either in pre-engineering or environmental-impact assessment stages.

The company still has to decide whether to build the generation plants using technology that will allow it to burn tops and trash. This is the main factor determining how much electricity it will produce.

Gold Fields chief operating officer Terence Goodlace says that the South Deep gold mine has switched to fully mechanised mining. It has ceased conventional mining entirely.

Goodlace says the use of highly mechanised equipment includes mechanised destressing of the massive South Deep orebody.

Goodlace says South Deep has a shaft system down to 3 000 metres and has been designed to be a modern mechanised mine.

Massive mining is rare for a Witwatersrand deposit and only the Target gold mine in the Free State is similarly mined. The orebody is currently the world's largest. Gold Fields bought it from Barrick of Canada last year.

Terence Goodlace:
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Also making headlines:

New freight rail command centre goes live
South Africa's automotive sector may record its first trade surplus in more than a decade
An economist says that the risk of ‘China bashing' increases as the global economy deteriorates
Platinum strikes a 6-month low, while gold is below $900
Rio Tinto invests 652-million dollars to continue its Arizona copper study
And, Cluff Gold completes its Sierra Leone gold acquisition

In political news:

Jacob Zuma's court bid continues
George Bush signs a law allowing Libya a compensation deal
Thabo Mbeki attends a South Africa-Namibia commission
And, Angola's president says the country will hold elections every 4 years

That's a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories, visit engineeringnews.co.za, miningweekly.com and polity.org.za