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MINERAL MINING
MINES ARE FACING WINTER BLACKOUTS (Business Day, 28/04/2013)
Already battered by wildcat strikes and a turf battle between the National Union of Mineworkers and its upstart rival, the
Association for Mineworkers and Construction Union, the mining industry faces another uphill battle with electrical
shortages. As the winter demand peaks, Eskom is expected to do unplanned maintenance work on its power stations,
which will see about 25% of the power utility’s capacity being unavailable, resulting in load shedding. Mining industry
output surprised many in the first two months of the year, with a better-than-expected performance, growing by 6.7%,
according to data from Stats SA. Early this month, Chamber of Mines CEO Bheki Sibiya said while the lights are still
burning for residential users mines are experiencing power outages. On Friday, Vusi Mabena, senior executive for
transformation and stakeholder relations at the chamber, said there is a big problem with the supply of electricity in terms
of quality and continuity. The chamber is engaging Eskom at senior level about this. However, Mr Mabena said that since
the demand reductions of 2008 most mines have adapted to constraints by closing sections and restructuring operations.
NON-FERROUS METALS
BHP SELLS COPPER MINE FOR $650M (Fin24, 29/04/2013)
BHP Billiton [JSE:BIL] has agreed to sell its Pinto Valley copper mine and a railroad in Arizona to Capstone Mining Corp
for $650m, reaping far more than expected as the top global miner tightens its belt in a weaker market. BHP and its global
mining peers have put billions of dollars’ worth of mines, projects and aluminium operations up for sale as they look to
slash costs, cut debt and focus on their highest returning assets as commodity prices slump. Pinto Valley takes BHP's
total asset sales over the past 12 months to $5bn. The Australian company flagged earlier this year that it was looking to
sell around 10 more assets, without naming them. Analysts had said Pinto Valley was a likely target, along with
aluminium, manganese and some petroleum operations. There has been speculation the major miners would find it tough
to find buyers for their unwanted assets as smaller miners are strapped for cash and even Chinese companies hungry to
expand have become more choosy, under pressure from Beijing. But BHP managed to fetch much more than expected
for Pinto Valley. Deutsche Bank had estimated the mine could sell for around $274m, while UBS estimated it was worth
$500m.
TRANSNET
TRANSNET FACES R79BN PENSION CLAIM (IOL, 28/04/2013)
A group of 66,000 pensioners have instituted a civil claim to recover about R79 billion they claim Transnet plundered from
their pension funds, according to Sunday's Rapport. The claim was instituted in the High Court in Pretoria on Friday. The
“conspicuously illegal manner” in which the funds were stripped only emerged recently when lawyers acting for the
pensioners obtained and analysed the funds' financial statements, according to court papers. The funds' most important
assets, acknowledgements of debt worth R7.7bn which generated an annual income of R1.2bn, were apparently
“swapped” in early 2001 for MTN shares, known as M-Cell at the time, worth about R1.4bn. “There is no indication that
the funds received any income from the M-Cell shares,” one of the lawyers involved in the matter, Leon Kellerman SC,
wrote in court papers. According to an affidavit from one of the pensioners, Johan Pretorius, the fund was plundered to
improve Transnet's balance sheet, with the knowledge of the former ministers of public works and finance, Jeff Radebe
and Trevor Manuel. About half the pensioners are white, and a third are black.
Transnet Freight Rail News Briefs Page 4 of 10