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Wednesday, June 2, 2010.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Brindaveni Naidoo.

Making headlines this week:

Executives from Rockwell Diamonds said on Tuesday that demand for rough diamonds, particularly from China and India, remained strong and should keep prices at least at current levels.

 Rockwell CEO John Bristow said that the US diamond market had also shown some improvement in prices and sales.

Rockwell produces high-value diamonds from three alluvial mines in South Africa - Holpan, Klipdam and Saxendrift - and has a fourth operation, Wouterspan, on care-and-maintenance.

After a "precipitous" drop in late 2008 and continued weakness in the early parts of 2009, prices and demand had now recovered strongly. Rockwell marketing and sales manager Jeffrey Brenner said that rough diamond prices were just about back at their 2008 highs.

AngloGold Ashanti's Tropicana gold project in Australia should proceed despite concerns about a proposed new mining tax in the country, the company's chief executive said on Wednesday.

CEO Mark Cutifani also said that the company's most pressing sovereign risk issue was now in Australia due to uncertainty over the tax.

The firm has spent 147-million-Australian-dollars on the pre-development of its Tropicana project, and the board is due to decide on final investment by the end of the year.

South African power utility Eskom said on Tuesday that its discussions with Anglo American regarding a burdensome price agreement for the Skorpion zinc mine, in Namibia, were "progressing well" and that the negotiations should be concluded during the current financial year.

The utility said that the negotiated price agreement, or NPA, with Skorpion represented only a small portion of its supply to the larger Anglo group, which was one of its largest customers. It was also only a small proportion of the NPAs that were regarded as onerous.

Earlier in the week, Eskom and BHP Billiton announced that they had amended a supply contract for the Mozal aluminium smelter, in Mozambique, and that discussions were continuing on amending the supply agreements for the South African smelters, which are located in Richards Bay, Kwazulu-Natal.

Also making headlines:

The Chinese move to seize the Orkney mine from Aurora as AngloGold pulls the plug over a 38-million-rand debt.
Copper miner Equinox Minerals begins studies into a phased capacity expansion at its flagship Lumwana mine, in Zambia.
Coal junior Keaton Energy earmarks 158-million-rand for the first phase of its Delmas mine.
And, Coal of Africa's proposed Vele coal mine could increase pollution and hurt South Africa's Mapungupwe World Heritage site.

That's a round up of news making headlines this week.