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Monday, July 13, 2009.

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

Making headlines today:

Platinum-miner Eastern Platinum has terminated the contracts of two contract mining companies, JIC and Sindele, working at its Crocodile River mine, near Brits, in South Africa's North West province.

This followed a sit-in by about 500 workers at the Zandfontein section of the mine last week, during which a number of supervisors from the contract mining companies were held hostage.

Eastplats CEO Ian Rozier announced in a statement on Monday that the contracts were terminated with immediate effect,.

CRM would now undertake all core mining activities with directly employed mineworkers. It currently directly employed about 1 500 mineworkers and planned to start recruiting more employees.

Meanwhile, Eastplats had also laid charges against the individuals who were involved in the "illegal activities", specifically in relation to safety and health transgressions, as well as taking people hostage.

On Sunday, Australia warned China of the risks to business confidence from the detention without charge of an Australian executive accused of stealing state secrets, and Chinese executives feared a wider purge.

The detention a week ago of Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto's top iron-ore salesman in China, Australian citizen Stern Hu, and three of his Chinese subordinates, has cast a shadow over Australia-China relations and unnerved the steel industry.

Rio Tinto was locked in tense price negotiations with China when Hu and his coworkers were detained in Shanghai, accused of stealing state secrets and bribing Chinese steelmakers for information.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said that Australian authorities were still pressing for details of the allegations against Hu. He said that China still hadn't revealed to them any evidence supporting the detentions.

Also making headlines:

Labour talks at Antamina, a major copper pit in Peru, are underway.
Zimbabwe will review its ownership law to seek investment needed for mines and other industries.
A UK court has sanctioned a plan by Vancouver-based Western Canadian Coal Corp to buy Cambrian Mining.
And, ASX-listed Minemakers now owns 94,3% of Bonaparte Diamonds.

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