Aspirant US space miners aim to break into tightly South African-held platinum domain

The platinum patch belongs to Southern Africans, or so we thought until new US aspirant space miner Planetary Resources burst on to the scene at the Museum of Flight in Seattle with a plan to mine platinum-group metals (PGMs) in outer space. The...

UNINTENDED POWER

Section 54 of the Mine Health and Safety Act is keeping the legal fraternity busy. Two cases have been brought to court so far and Minerals Minister Susan Shabangu is depicted in this photograph during the media conference she hosted in Pretoria...

Resources Watch

This week: Kalagadi Manganese secures R7-billion debt as the final shaft blast goes off at its Northern Cape project. The Section 54 safety stoppage issue dominates Minister Susan Shabangu’s media conference. And, Xylem Water Solution’s new...

Section 54 safety stoppage issue dominates Shabangu media conference

The issue of Section 54 mine safety stoppages and their unintended potentially hazardous consequences dominated a Minerals Ministry media conference here on Tuesday. In a case that the JSE-listed Northam Platinum brought against the Department of...

6 000 worker shareholders become half millionaires overnight

Six thousand two hundred and nine worker shareholders of JSE-listed Kumba Iron Ore each became pretax half millionaires on Tuesday. The R2.7-billion payout is the first phase of employee share ownership plan (Esop) with the second five-year phase...

18/11/2011 (On-The-Air)

The gun that Chile is holding at the head of Anglo American is putting South African investors at risk; The Northern Cape has been chosen as the place to set a new world land speed record; and COP 17 climate conference.

Botswana govt to trade diamonds independently to verify market movements

What will the Botswana government do with the 10% of run-of-mine rough that it buys from Debswana – the 50:50 De Beers and Botswana government joint venture diamond-mining company – beginning this year?

NUM resolves to take up cudgels against Anglo in silicosis battle

South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has resolved to take up the cudgels against Anglo American on behalf of silicosis sufferers. Anglo American South Africa is the defendant in a litigation case brought by the law firm Richard...

Platmin secures 6Moz in R500m deal with Bakgatla community

The TSX- and JSE-listed platinum miner Platmin has secured six million ounces of platinum in a R500-million deal that “transforms the business”. Pallinghurst CEO Arne Frandsen tells Mining Weekly Online that the acquired resource has the...

South Africa plans high-tech mine safety training for 40 000

South Africa last year delivered its best mine safety improvement in seven years, according to the Chamber of Mines. The 24% reduction in fatalities in 2010 to 128 is the best since 2003, the Chamber told a media conference. Forty fewer died...

Differing shareholders close ranks as Bafokeng move to raise R1bn in IPO

The publicly differing founding shareholders of the black-controlled platinum-mining company RBPlat on Monday closed ranks in support of the JSE aspirant's bid to raise R1-billion in an initial public offering (IPO) on November 8. RBPlat CEO...

Infrastructure deficiencies constraining SA’s manganese growth

Mike Rossouw cites South Africa’s manganese story as being one of South Africa’s saddest mining stories. “We’ve got 80% of the manga-nese reserves and resources in the world, but we only produce about 15% of the world’s manga- nese,...