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Friday, February 27, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Guy Copans.

Making headlines today:

Mining sector executives are predicting a severe-pull back in exploration activity, and expect that about a third of the world's exploration firms won't survive the current downturn.

Four out of every five executives who responded to the Fraser Institute's annual survey of mining companies said they expected that at least 30% of exploration companies would be forced out of business. Of those, two out of five expected that 50% or more would have to close.

Survey coordinator Fred McMahon said that these responses indicated that the mining sector expects dramatically decreased investment plans along with a large number of companies either reducing activity or going out of business all together.

More than 90% of respondents believe the exploration and development activities of exploration companies will be curtailed, with 57% saying the activity will decline "a great deal."

McMahon said that this was bad news for an economy looking forward to recovery.

On Thursday, London- and Johannesburg-listed gold junior Pan African appealed to the South African government for assistance after another eight trespassing miners were found dead in the Consort underground gold mine in Barberton. This increased the total number of deaths of illegal miners to 13 since the weekend.

Pan African CEO Jan Nelson said that the only way to stop the ongoing illegal mining in the area was for the South African government to appoint a special task force to track down the ringleaders and to convict them.

Nelson said that the illegal mining activities were so well organised that some of the trespassers had been found with drilling equipment more sophisticated than Pan African's own drilling equipment.

He added that although illegal mining had been taking place in the area for many years, it was intensifying with the surge in the gold price.

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Also making headlines:

Aim-listed alluvial diamond mining company Namibian Resources will close diamond operations.
Gold mining and exploration company Central Rand Gold South Africa is granted new mining rights in South Africa.
Aluminium gets a 6,5-billion-dollar boost from Barack Obama's new-energy stimulus plan.
And, Zambia trims the power supply to mines as demand falls.

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