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Cover Story
Essakane a shining example

West Africa
Randgold to triple production
Opportunities Abound in West Africa
Newmont aims to go underground
Resolute intensifies gold search
MDL doubles gold and launches mineral sands
Newcomer aims at 300,000 oz/y of gold
Zest establishes office in West Africa

Coal
Assessing coal projects

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Cover Story
Accommodation solutions from Kwikspace

Zambia
Zambia’s mining future in the balance

DRC
Tenke Fungurume project looking at expansion
Metorex plans sharp rise in copper output
Banro on track to produce gold in 2012

Cameroon
Cameroon – Congo iron ore project remains on track

Palabora
Palabora’s diversification into magnetite

Industrial Minerals
US$1.5 billion rare metals plant for SA

Uranium
New interest in Uranium
Uranium Heap Leaching introduced in Southern Africa
Niger Builds upon its Uranium Potential

Coal
Keaton in position to serve SA coal market

[img:Steel - e_0.jpg|Horses in the foreground,
with the ArcelorMittal
steel plant in the
background]New Delhi, India --- MININGREVIEW.COM --- 22 December 2010 - Steel Authority of India Limited ‒ the nation’s second-largest producer ‒ is talking with a state-run South African company to set up a steel plant here to tap the resources of the continent’s biggest producer of the metal.

[img:Tete work_0.jpg|Drill team at work
at Riversdale’s Benga
project in Mozambique]Sydney, Australia --- MININGREVIEW.COM --- 22 December 2010 - ASX and LSE-listed mining giant Rio Tinto is finalising a US$3.8 billion (R25.8 billion) takeover bid for Australian-listed coal mining company Riversdale Mining Limited, ahead of a possible bidding war for the African-focused target.

[img:Northam - bo_0.jpg|Northam’s
Booysendal
platinum mine]Johannesburg, South Africa --- MININGREVIEW.COM --- 22 December 2010 - Northam Platinum ‒ one of South Africa's smaller platinum producers ‒ has revealed that its earnings for the first half of the current financial year will more than halve, hit by a strike and safety-related stoppages.

In a statement issued here, Northam said headline earnings for the six months to 31December 2010 would likely total between 15 and 25 cents per share, compared with 59.9 cents in the same period a year earlier.

[img:Newcrest - Pic 1_0.jpg|A workers gestures
at the Bonikro mine
site in Cote d'Ivoire]Melbourne, Australia --- MININGREVIEW.COM --- 22 December 2010 - Australia's Newcrest Mining ‒ a leading international gold company and one of the world's lowest cost gold producers ‒ has put work at its Bonikro gold mine in Cote d'Ivoire on ice and moved mine management to Ghana, amid election tensions in the region.

[img:Kumba - s_0.jpg|Lazarus Zim ‒ to
start a new steel
company]Johannesburg, South Africa --- MININGREVIEW.COM --- 21 December 2010 - The former chairman of Kumba Iron Ore ‒ Lazarus Zim ‒ says he resigned from the board of the Anglo American steel unit to start a new steel company, and to avoid the perception of a conflict of interest.

Reuters reports that Zim had already tried to distance himself from the world's 10th largest iron ore supplier when Kumba began a legal dispute over mineral rights with ArcelorMittal South Africa, due to his connections with a person in the deal.

[img:Nico - Pic 1_0.jpg|Simmers interim CEO
Nico Schoeman has
resigned]Johannesburg, South Africa --- MININGREVIEW.COM --- 21 December 2010 - Gold and uranium producer Simmer & Jack Mines Limited has announced that interim CEO Nico Schoeman has resigned with effect from 30 December.

Revealing this in a statement issued here, the board of directors further advised that the company's current CFO Marius Saaiman would take over from Schoeman, also in an acting capacity.

[img:Anglo -america_0.gif|Anglo American ‒
reportedly plotting a
takeover of De Beers]Johannesburg, South Africa --- MININGREVIEW.COM --- 21 December 2010 - The De Beers Group ‒ the world's largest diamond business ‒ has contradicted weekend reports out of London that mining giant Anglo American plc was plotting a takeover, saying it has no knowledge of any such development.

[img:Tata - Pic 1_0.jpg|The Tata Steel KZN
plant in Richards Bay]Bangalore, India --- MININGREVIEW.COM --- 21 December 2010 - Indian industrial giant Tata Steel ‒ the world's No. 7 steel maker ‒ is in talks to sell its South African assets in order to raise more than US$150 million (R1 billion).

Reporting this development from here, the Economic Times did not cite a source. It said that Standard Chartered's India investment banking team had been given the mandate to select a potential buyer.

[img:Mugabe - h_0.jpg|Anglo Platinum’s
Unki mine in
Zimbabwe]Harare, Zimbabwe --- MININGREVIEW.COM --- 20 December 2010 - Mining companies are very much to the fore in the latest threat by President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe to act against companies from Western countries that have imposed sanctions on his party over suspected election fraud and rights abuses.

The 86-year-old leader has repeated threats to nationalise foreign firms, threatening to retaliate against companies such as Rio Tinto and Anglo American which operate in Zimbabwe.

[img:Korea - d_0.jpg|Iron ore mining
in Cameroon ‒ now
Korea is coming in
to mine diamonds]Paris, France --- MININGREVIEW.COM --- 20 December 2010 - The government of Cameroon has revealed that a new diamond mine is to be established in the central African country.

The government has approved a plan by South Korea’s C&K Mining to build the diamond mine near the southeastern town of Yakadouma, French news agency Agency France-Presse (AFP) reports.

[img:De Beers office_0.jpg|De Beers ‒ might be
purchased from the
Oppenheimer family by
Anglo-American for
R21 billion]Johannesburg, South Africa --- MININGREVIEW.COM --- 20 December 2010 - Mining giant Anglo American plc ‒ one of the world's largest diversified mining and natural resource groups ‒ may buy the Oppenheimer family out of diamond company De Beers.