Barrick Gold veteran Peter Munk was full of praise for the GlencoreXstrata team at his swansong annual shareholder meeting in Canada, where the retiring 86-year-old spoke of the London-, Hong Kong- and now also Johannesburg-listed diversified miner and marketer as being the mining world’s current model. Read on page 12 of this edition of Mining Weekly of Munk’s admiration for the manner in which GlencoreXstrata is taking on Rio Tinto, Vale and BHP Billiton. Barrick, which began as an oil and gas company, switched to gold under Munk and became the yellow metal’s largest producer after taking over Placer Dome in 2006.

A new private-sector joint venture in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) intends going big on road, rail and energy development in the mineral-rich Central African country. Read on page 7 of this edition of Mining Weekly of the Fleurette group, advised by DRC investor Dan Gertler, teaming up with Brazilian construction group Andrade Gutierrez to build mine-boosting infrastructure that Katanga governor Moïse Katumbi says is just what the country needs. Gertler has been investing in the DRC since 1997 and the 65-year-old lead developer, Andrade Gutierrez, is a seasoned builder of thermal power plant, airports and road networks. The World Bank has estimated that repairs and maintenance on the DRC’s existing road networks alone will require an investment of some $400-million a year.

Multinational Indian mining, steel and power conglomerate Jindal Steel & Power has officially launched its new Jindal Africa head office in Johannesburg, which it sees as a springboard into Africa. Read on page 8 of this edition of Mining Weekly of the company being ready to take the next leap into the African continent after spending the last five years determining Africa’s needs in general and the needs of the continent’s have-nots in particular. Jindal, India’s fourth-largest company, owns the Kiepersol colliery in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province, which supplies anthracite to local steel manufacturers, and is now building an opencast iron-ore mine in KwaZulu-Natal.

Coal mining company Exxaro’s Inyanda mine has launched a programme to improve the quality of education in communities that supply labour to its mines. Read on page 45 of this edition of Mining Weekly of the project at Pine Ridge Combined School, in Mpumalanga, where extra classes are being provided for Grade 10, 11 and 12 learners on Saturdays and during school holidays, with the focus on maths, science, English and life orientation.