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Monday, March 8, 2010.

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

Making headlines today:

Diversified miner BHP Billiton reports that it has reached sales terms for a significant portion of its hard coking coal volumes for 2010, with customers in Europe, China, India and Japan.

The world's number-one coking coal miner says that the deals are based on a structural change to shorter-term market based pricing for the contract period.

The settlements reflect the company's commitment to achieving market-clearing prices over time, across all of its bulk commodities.

The diversified mining company hasn't disclose the terms of the agreements with the European and Asian clients.

Vancouver-based Aurizon Mines still plans to complete a feasibility study on its Joanna project in Quebec, by the end of this year, which could set it up to pour the first gold at the mine around mid-2012.

Aurizon owns and operates the Casa Berardi mine, also in Quebec, and expects to produce between 145 000 ounces and 155 000 ounces this year.

CEO David Hall says that construction at Joanna could begin around this time next year and will take 18 months to complete.

Once in production, the mine has the potential to boost the firm's output by some 60%, to around 260 000 ounces a year.

Also making headlines:

Vale Inco and the United Steelworkers union break off their Sudbury talks.
A fire guts ENRC's Zambian cobalt plant, but output remains stable.
Western Australia is looking to develop its geothermal exploration sector.
And, South Africa is exporting more raw chrome ore at low prices.

And that's a round up of news making headlines today.