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Monday, November 30, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Mary-Anne O'Donnell.

Making headlines today:

JSE-and LSE-listed Petra Diamonds has sold a 168 carat white diamond for 6,28-million-dollars. This amounted to about 37 380-dollars a carat. The diamond was recovered at its Cullinan mine, in South Africa.

The stone was recovered in the same production series as three other large diamonds, among which was a 507,55 carat white diamond that hasn't yet been offered for sale.

The other two diamonds were 58,5 carats and 53,3 carats and sold for a total of 2,8-million-dollars.

The request for the issuing of a notice for the holding of an extraordinary general meeting, or EGM, to unseat members of the board of JSE-listed gold junior Simmer & Jack has been withdrawn.

The withdrawal, on Friday, followed an application by Simmers to the South Gauteng High Court.

The application stemmed from a bid by disgruntled empowerment partner Vulisango to place its nominees on the Simmers board at the EGM.

Also making headlines:

The diamond council slams South Africa's State Diamond Trader.
South Africa and Zimbabwe seal an investment protection agreement.
Zambia's Kansanshi mine lifts its copper output.
And, construction starts on a new 10-million tons a year Australian iron-ore mine.

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