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Wednesday, June 17, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon O'Donnell.

Making headlines today:

Rio Tinto's and BHP Billiton's proposed iron-ore joint venture has "a strong monopolistic flavour" and Chinese firms are actively seeking ways to cope with it.

China is the world's largest importer of iron ore and BHP-Rio together would account for 80 percent of Australia's exports of the ore. The Ministry of Commerce said this week that China's worries about the deal were understandable.

Chen Yanhai, an official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the deal should be subject to Chinese anti-monopoly law.

Rio Tinto scrapped a proposed 19,5-billion-dollar tie-up with Chinese metals group Chinalco two weeks ago. It instead raised 21-billion-dollars through a 15,2-billion-dollar rights issue and the iron ore joint venture with BHP.

Swedish exploration and mining group International Gold Exploration would sell its 50% stake in a Kenyan gold project to its joint venture partner Goldplat for 2,7-million-dollars.

IGE said that it had signed a heads of agreement with gold junior Goldplat for the sale of its share in the project. The parties would draft and conclude a sale agreement as soon as possible.

The sale was in line with IGE's strategy of focusing on bulk mineable gold deposits with resources in excess of one-million ounces. The group would continue to invest in long-term projects, which it would partly fund through the disposal of smaller projects.

Also making headlines:

Zambia's copper mines are hit by a national power blackout.
A study reveals that gold miners aren't finding new deposits to meet future needs.
Goldman Sachs expects the current downward movement in the price of copper to be short-lived.
And, Anooraq Resources says its Lebowa deal conditions will be met by month-end.

That's a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories please visit miningweekly.com.