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Friday, November 28, 2008.

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

Making headlines today:

The world's largest single coal terminal, the Richards Bay Coal Terminal, had not seen a decrease in volumes exported, despite the global economic downturn.

RBCT export operations specialist Julio dos Santos said that although the price of coal might have decreased significantly, the quantity of coal exported had not been affected, and the demand for South African coal remained high.

The terminal had the capacity to export some 72-million tons a year of coal, and about 70-million tons of this was a stable contracted supply.

Canadian-listed First Uranium has materials and equipment in place to finish construction of its Ezulwini uranium plant. The company expects to have it up and running in the first three months of 2009 following two delays.

The company had originally planned to have the operation up and running in August, but has had to delay it twice. Most recently it announced it would push the start back from October to early next year.

CEO Gordon Miller said the delays were due to order backlogs for items such as steel, concrete, and equipment. These items had been in short supply during the mine building boom in the last few years.

Also making headlines:

US aluminium giant Alcoa is not actively seeking to raise its stake in miner Rio Tinto.
Diversified miner Metorex Resources enters into agreements for debt and equity financing for its Ruashi copper/cobalt project.
Diversified resources group Exxaro is among the top performers in the JSE's socially responsible index.
And, BHP Billiton says that absorbing Rio Tinto would have doubled its gearing to 48%.

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