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Friday, January 9, 2009.

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

Making headlines today:

Vancouver-based Teck Cominco will reduce coal production this year to 20-million tons in response to falling steel demand, and will cut its workforce by 13%.

The company will eliminate about 1 000 employee and 400 contractor positions by the end of 2009 in an attempt to reduce costs in the face of "persistently weak" commodity prices.

The coal-, gold- and base-metals miner expects that the job cuts will generate annual savings of about C$85-million.

On Thursday, Harmony Gold CEO Graham Briggs said the firm's capital expenditure plans remain intact despite the credit crunch. The company also sees gold rising to $900/oz this year.

Briggs repeated his forecast that the group would be debt free by June. He said the world's fifth- largest gold producer would then look to acquire assets, preferably those that are already operational.

Harmony has a due diligence team that is hunting assets around the world, but would only buy mines once rid of its debt.

Harmony said its debt in October stood at R2,4-billion, and since then it has made efforts to cut it, including issuing shares to raise close to R1-billion.

Also making headlines:

South Africa's Transnet sets January 16 deadline for its manganese rail allocation process.
Equinox hints at hidden motives in Glencore's rejection of its copper concentrate.
Canada's Goldcorp expects to produce 2,3-million ounces this year.
And, Pamodzi Gold withdraws its unsigned loan plan from its general meeting.

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