Follow us on twitter!News Flash 20 September 2011
Mining Weekly
Macathur takeover bid extended to October
US-based Peabody Energy and steel major ArcelorMittal have extended their joint takeover offer for Australian coal miner Macarthur Coal to October 14. Under the offer, which was initially scheduled to close on Sept 27, Peabody and ArcelorMittal were offering Macarthur shareholders A$16 a share in cash for every share held. Read More....
BHP to face more work stoppages at Australia coal mines
Global miner BHP Billiton will face work stoppages at all its Queensland, Australia coal mine operations next week ahead of an employee vote on a contract, a workers union said on Monday. BHP said last week it had reached an impasse in its negotiations with the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and would put a proposed contract directly to employees at the end of the month. Read More....
Continental Coal lists in London
South African thermal coal miner Continental Coal on Monday made its debut on the Aim market in London, which CEO Don Turvey described as a “strategic move”. Continental, which is also listed in Australia, expected to benefit from the expanded international profile and engagement with additional European funds and institutional investors. Read More....
‘Transformed’ Coal of Africa a ‘buy’ – Evolution Securities
London-based Evolution Securities has reiterated a “buy” recommendation on the ASX-, JSE- and Aim-listed Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL) owing to its future coking-coal upside potential. Evolution’s Charles Kernot says in a note following the company's presentation of improved results that CoAL’s investment case relates to good production headway at Vele and Makhado in South Africa's Limpopo province. Read More....
ChinaCoal's Shanxi mines closed after fatal accident
China National Coal Group Corp's (ChinaCoal) mining operations in north Shanxi Province were suspended after eight miners died in a colliery flooding at one of the company's subsidiaries there, state media Xinhua News reported. Shanxi Vice Governor Li Xiaopeng said the flooding exposed 'serious problems' in the implementation of safety measures and vowed a thorough investigation into the accident. Read More....
Business Live
Industry future constrained by rail prices: CoAL
Coal of Africa Limited, the coal development company operating in SA, has warned that current rail and port tariffs are too high to allow the coal industry to grow. CoAL CEO John Wallington said that unit rates on Transnet's Maputo rail corridor were twice the cost of those on the privately-operated Richards Bay corridor. Read More....
Business Report
How can we believe you, Shell?
In Business Report on Wednesday, September 7, the general manager upstream for Shell South Africa, Jan Willem Eggink, wrote a feature in which he sang the praises of what shale gas fracking can offer the Karoo, how safe the process is, how willing Shell is to do the right thing environmentally and how trustworthy Shell is.
“Shell has not done anything to gain our trust,” says Karoo farmer Lukie Strydom who together with fellow Karoo farmer and Agri Eastern Cape member Dougie Stern went on a two-week frack finding mission to the US in June and July this year to research shale gas fracking firsthand on behalf of the people of the Karoo.
“On Freek Robinson’s show on Kyknet on the 24 July 2011, Jan Willem Eggink, openly denied being aware of the contamination of a Shell well in Charlestown while we were in the US. Yet he had the newspaper article covering this spill in his possession because I personally gave it to him,” says Strydom. Read More....
Optimum Coal board reviews Glencore bid
Independent directors at South Africa's Optimum Coal (OCH) are reviewing an expression of interest from Glencore and its local partner and share sales made to the suitors despite the absence of a formal bid, investors said.
Glencore, the world's largest diversified commodities trader, has been buying stock in OCH, and earlier this month said it aimed to take a controlling stake in South Africa's sixth-largest coal producer alongside its partner, politician-turned-businessman Cyril Ramaphosa. They have yet to make a formal offer.
Some investors expressed concerns that shares were sold to the suitors before the expression of interest was revealed. Read More....
Financial Times
US solar power growth accelerates
Investment in US solar power is on course this year to nearly double 2010’s capacity addition, according to the industry’s trade group. The group said in its regular quarterly assessment, published on Tuesday, that the industry employs more than 100,000 people in the US, twice as many as it did two years ago and more than the steel industry or coal mining. Read More....
