Thursday, June 25, 2009.

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

Making headlines today:

On Wednesday, Anglo American suitor Xstrata published an open letter in which it set out its rationale for an all-share merger of equals. The rationale bears none of the usual characteristics of shareholder premiums and worker retrenchments.

Fairfax mining analyst John Meyer said simultaneously that the merger offered an acceleration of efficiency gains for Anglo. Standard Life Investments head David Cumming urged Anglo to hold talks on the plan rather than reject it out of hand.

Xstrata said that there would be no South African retrenchments and that South Africa would be a net beneficiary of the transaction, which it described as a merger of two equally-sized companies from which equally-sized shareholder benefits would accrue.

The London-listed company said that the board of directors and management team of the combined entity would be sourced from both companies.

Xstrata CEO Mick Davis commented that it was well recognised that the combination of Xstrata and Anglo was a natural fit.

The world's third-largest platinum producer Lonmin's metal in process could increase by as much as 20 000 ounces of platinum by September. This is as a consequence of a matte run-out at its number 1 furnace earlier this month.

The company announced on June 15 that its number 1 furnace would remain closed for about a month following the incident.

An investigation had revealed that the matte run-out had been caused by a water leak in one of the lower copper cooling waffle units above one of the matte tappe blocks.

This unit was being replaced and matte was expected to be tapped again within the previously announced estimate of 30 days.

The repair cost, in addition to the cost of running the three additional Pyromet furnaces, was about 4-million-dollars.

Also making headlines:

JSE-listed Sentula Mining names its former financial director in a 242-million-rand misappropriation probe.
Venezuela seeks a loan to develop its diamond and gold mining sector.
South African diamond-miner DiamondCorp enters into an exploration joint-venture deal in Botswana.
And, South African logistics group Transnet says its coal line upgrade is behind schedule.

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