Wednesday, March 3, 2010.

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

Making headlines today:

South Africa's Gold Fields is aiming to produce some 60% of its gold from mines outside its home country within five years.

However, CEO Nick Holland says that South Africa will remain an important platform and base for the Johannesburg based firm.

South Africa currently accounts for about 58% of Gold Fields' total production, compared with as much as 65% two years ago.

The company's other main operating regions are South America, West Africa and Australasia.

ASX-listed platinum producer Platinum Australia has reported that work at the company's Smokey Hills mine, in South Africa, had come to an almost complete stop, as mine contractor staff went on unprotected industrial action.

The platinum miner said that workers had refused to go underground since the start of dayshift on Monday.

Mining contractor Redpath Mining has advised its workers to return to work, or face dismissal for participating in the unprotected industrial action. Platinum Australia said that the contractor had measures in place to deal with the situation in the event that employees were dismissed.

While the industrial action didn't involve any other workers at the mine, it has resulted in the stoppage of almost all operations at the mine. However, scheduled maintenance work on the plant has now been brought forward to assist in decreasing the impact of the stoppage.

Also making headlines:

South Africa's State-owned mining firm African Exploration, Mining and Financing Corp. drops a coal exploration project in Botswana because it's no longer viable.
Zimbabwe's unity government reviews rules forcing foreign-owned firms to sell a majority stake to locals.
South Africa's powerful National Union of Mineworkers decides to suspend its planned strike action at Gold Fields' South African operations.
And, Harmony Gold CEO Graham Briggs says that the power cost hike could speed up the closure of more marginal mines.

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