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Thursday, October 1, 2009.

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

Making headlines today:

Brazilian-owned Vale Inco expects to restart some operations at its Sudbury, Ontario, mill this week, with no end in sight to an 11-week strike by members of the United Steelworkers union employed by the company.

Spokesperson Cory McPhee says that commissioning work at the Clarabelle mill is close to completion, with the mill expected to operate for an initial 48-hour cycle beginning on Thursday.

The company is continuing with preparatory work at the Coleman mine 153 orebody and Garson ramp, ahead of production restarting.

McPhee says that operations should be under way at both locations beginning next week.

JSE-listed gold producer DRDGold has confirmed that wage-related strike action at its Blyvooruitzicht and Crown mines were continuing and that the action was affecting production.

A total of 4 400 employees and members of the National Union of Mineworkers were taking part in the strike.

The company indicated that the resultant daily production loss, which was mainly attributable to labour-intensive underground mining operations at Blyvoor, was estimated at about 320 ounces, worth some 2,4-million-rand at the current rand gold price. The impact of the strike on Blyvoor's surface retreatment operation and on Crown, had not been significant to date.

Also making headlines:

Lonmin may pay out on the 125-million-dollar Incwala loans.
US coal producer Massey Energy scoops up coal assets from bankrupt miner Appalachian Fuels.
Newmont Mining pours first gold at Boddington mine.
And, the Canadian head of Democratic Republic of Congo's state mining firm Gecamines resigns.

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