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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
GENERAL COMMODITIES SLUMP SENDS OUT RIPPLES (IOL, 28/04/2013) Lower airfares, cheaper food and rising profit margins are among the benefits that should flow from tumbling oil and commodity prices, but only after a long lead time. Having poured $400 billion (R3.6 trillion) into commodities over the past decade, many investors are now selling. Their confidence that risky assets could only float higher on a rising tide of cheap central bank money has crumbled as the global economy fails to respond to the stimulus. Even China, an important buyer of natural resources, is slowing. Inflation, against which gold in particular is a classic hedge, is falling nearly everywhere. Price pressures will ease further if natural resources keep depreciating. That is bad news for exporters such as Saudi Arabia and Brazil but good news for importers. Weaker commodity prices should be positive for the world economy on average because falling inflation supports consumer spending, according to ABN Amro economist Han de Jong. Standard & Poor’s GSCI index of global commodity prices has fallen 6.6 percent so far this year. But raw materials represent a small part of most firms’ costs, so it is not surprising that some businesses, especially those in very competitive markets, are not getting carried away. COPPER THEFT BAROMETER DROPPED IN MARCH: SACCI (MSN Business News, 29/04/2013) The copper theft barometer dropped to R10m in March after showing a slight uptick to R11.2m in February from R11.1m in January and R12.4m in December last year‚ according to the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry's (Sacci’s) latest copper theft barometer. The January level was the lowest level of the barometer since April 2009 and was a strong indication that the downward momentum seen last year should continue this year‚ the business chamber said in a statement. While there was a strong relationship between the incidence level of copper theft and the international copper price‚ this was a cyclical relationship that could be influenced by structural changes within the domestic environment‚ the chamber said. The copper theft volume indicator eased to 142 metric tons in March after being steady at a level of 156 metric tons in February and January from 179 tons in December and 180 tons in November. The international spot price of copper continued its drastic fall to a monthly average of $7‚255 per ton in April from $7‚659 in March and $8‚062 in February. The April figure was 12.4% lower than a year before and contracted by 5.2% on a monthly basis. RAND FIRMS DESPITE LACK OF NEWS (Business Day, 29/04/2013) The rand was firm in quiet early trade on Monday, strengthening despite a lack of news. Dealers said they expected a range-bound day due to the lack of data, but South Africa’s foreign trade data on Tuesday should provide direction. "We tested R9.05 per US dollar on Friday but that level held so we are looking at a R9.05-R9.15 range until the March foreign trade data is released tomorrow afternoon," a local foreign exchange trader said. At 8am the rand was bid at R9.0873 to the US dollar from R9.1033 at Friday’s close and R9.0688 at Thursday’s close. CURRENCIES AND PRICES MARKETS AND INDICATORS JSE Alsi 09:18 39,232 + 149.48 + 0.38% Financials 09:18 30,899 + 91.21 + 0.30% Industrials 09:18 40,325 + 25.56 + 0.06% FOREX Rand/Dollar 09:17 9.0683 - 0.21 - 2.25% Rand/Pound 09:08 14.0368 - 0.08 - 0.57% Rand/Euro 08:00 11.8553 - 0.24 - 1.99% COMMODITIES Gold (usd/oz) 09:16 1,474.60 + 5.40 + 0.37% Platinum (usd/oz) 09:16 1,480.50 - 2.50 - 0.17% Transnet Freight Rail News Briefs Page 5 of 10
Page 1 and 2: COMMODITY NEWSBRIEFS: 29 APRIL 2013
Page 3: COAL WORLD RECOGNISING UNDERGROUND
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Page 9 and 10: Diesel 0.05% (c/l) 1027.69 1026.69

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