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Friday, May 22, 2009.

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

Making headlines today:

TSX- and JSE-listed First Uranium has started production from the uranium plant at its Ezulwini underground gold and uranium mine, in South Africa.

CEO Gordon Miller said that the company was now a member of a select group of uranium-producing miners.

He said that First Uranium was among an even smaller group of uranium miners that were so far unencumbered by contracts or partnerships with nuclear utilities or government agencies.

In the fourth and final quarter, First Uranium processed 1,69-million tons of reclaimed tailings at its Mine Waste Solutions tailings recovery project, and milled more than 108 000 tons of gold ore from low-grade stockpiles at Ezulwini.

On Friday, diversified giant BHP Billiton confirmed that it had initiated plans to develop a second uranium mine in Australia.

BHP spokesperson Illtud Harri said that the miner currently planned to start project construction on the Yeelirrie uranium project, in Western Australia, by 2011, with initial production from the mine starting in 2014.

This timeline was subject to government and board approvals.

Also making headlines:

Strong currencies to hit mining firms' profits.
Platinum Australia signs a deal to earn a 70% stake in a South African project.
The Australian minerals industry could potentially lose 23 510 direct jobs by 2010, owing to the introduction of the carbon pollution reduction scheme.
And, Mongolian mining is in focus ahead of the presidential elections.

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