Katanga Mining's shareholders approved the merger with Nikanor at a special meeting held January 11 in Toronto, Ontario. With over 90% of shares tendered by Nikanor shareholders at the first closing date of the offer, all conditions of the offer have been satisfied and the oOffer has been declared unconditional. The merger brings together the adjacent properties in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) owned by Katanga and Nikanor to create a major single-site operation. It creates a company with the potential to become Africa's largest copper producer and the world's largest cobalt producer, with a targeted annual output approaching 400,000 t of copper and 40,000 t of cobalt by 2011. More..

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PKF, accountants and business advisers, notes that worldwide pressure on supplies of non-ferrous metals has brought a lot of new mining companies into existence and to the market. As they move into production, these companies will face tough financial challenges during 2008. PKF is holding a seminar aimed at helping those companies to manage down their tax costs.

The free seminar will take place on Wednesday January 23, 2008 from 5.30 pm at PKF's London office in Farringdon and will explore a number of current tax issues affecting mining companies and their employees. More..

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Rio Tinto's $1.4 billion Dampier Port upgrade project in Western Australia has been completed on time and on budget. Capacity at the iron ore port has increased 90%, from 74 Mt four years ago to a current capacity of 140 Mt/y. Sam Walsh, Rio Tinto Iron Ore's Chief Executive said, "The expansion of Dampier Port is another testimony to the ability of our teams to bring large projects to fruition on time and on budget. We are investing heavily to help Rio Tinto take advantage of the strong demand growth in the global market, particularly in China. With our studies of the expansion to 320 Mt/y capacity in the Pilbara, and the Simandou project in Guinea, West Africa, this aggressive ramping up of production to meet that growing demand is set to continue." More..

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Aquarius Platinum’s Everest and Marikana mines in South Africa have passed the Department of Minerals and Energy’s newly implemented Presidential Safety Audits in respect of mine safety.

Everest was the first mine in South Africa to be audited under the newly instituted Presidential Audit system. The audits comprised two streams – a legal audit and a technical audit of certain installations and practices at mines. More..

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