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Wednesday, January 21, 2009.

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

Making headlines today:

On Wednesday, diversified miner BHP Billiton said it would cut jobs at two of its nickel mines, in Western Australia.

The company would ramp-down production at the Ravensthorpe operation. This is as a result of the "significant" decline in the prospects of the nickel market and the expected levels of capital expenditure needed to sustain production volumes at the operation.

About 800 permanent employees and 1 000 contractors would be retrenched by June.

Africa-focused base-metals-miner Albidon has suspended the development of the northern decline at its Munali nickel project, in Zambia, because the current nickel price didn't warrant the capital expenditure on the project.

The Perth-based company explained that only lower-grade mining blocks at Munali would be accessed in the short term.

The suspension of work at the northern decline would reduce capital development over the life-of-mine by 2 500 m. However, the reduction wouldn't occur in 2009, as the focus would be kept on vertical development, ahead of production.

Also making headlines:

Copper hoisting at Zambia's Nkana copper mine falls 20% after a fire causes damage to a conveyor belt.
Nickel producer Norilsk Nickel expects revenue to fall to $8-billion.
Gold miner DRDGold will retrench 78% of ERPM's workforce.
And, Rio Tinto Alcan announces a further 6% cut in output.

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