Wednesday, January 20, 2010.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon de Ryhove.

Making headlines today:

Mining giant BHP Billiton has approved 240-million-dollars for early-stage development of the Jansen potash project, in Saskatchewan, Canada.

The project is being designed to produce about eight-million tons a year of agricultural-grade potash, which will represent BHP Billiton's first production of the crop nutrient.

The money will go towards preparation work for production and service shafts, including the required ground freezing ahead of shaft sinking, and completing detailed engineering and equipment and materials commitments.

Shaft sinking will begin once full environmental permits are in place, which is targeted for mid-2011.

JSE- and TSX-listed platinum junior Anooraq Resources has completed the 118-million-rand upgrade of its concentrator plant at the Bokoni mine, in South Africa's Limpopo province.

The plant upgrade increases the milling capacity at Bokoni to 165 000 tons a month.

The concentrator plant will now be able to accommodate Anooraq's first phase production expansion plan of 160 000 tons a month by 2014.

The project included an upgrade on the main stream pumps to accommodate additional production throughput, the introduction of cyclone clusters for more efficient classification and an upgrade to the Merensky concentrator primary mill from an autogenous grinding mill to a semi-autogenous grinding mill to assist with grind of run-of-mine ore.

Also making headlines:

Brazilian mining company Vale could export record volumes of iron-ore this year.
BHP Billiton's quarterly iron-ore output was up 11%.
ASX-listed Bass Metals gets environmental approval for its Tasmania mine.
And, diversified miner BHP Billiton is in talks with steel giant ArcelorMittal to potentially form an iron-ore joint venture in West Africa.

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