South African gold miner Durban Roodepoort Deep (DRD) on Wednesday announced that it has lodged a second supplementary bidder’s statement in relation to its hostile takeover bid for Australia’s Emperor Mines. But an independent report says DRD’s offer to Emperor shareholders is neither fair nor reasonable.
South Africa’s Competition Commission on Thursday announced that it has found no competition concerns regarding the acquisition by LNM Holdings NV of South African steel producer Iscor. The next step in the regulatory process will be for the Competition Tribunal to consider the matter.
The world’s fifth-largest gold miner, Harmony Gold Mining, on Tuesday announced that it has completed its acquisition of Avgold, following the sanction of the High Court and the order of the court subsequently being registered by the Registrar of Companies.
The National Union of Mineworkers on Monday slammed world number four gold mining group Gold Fields for its statements last week that previous wage agreements in the gold-mining industry had been too high. Last week the gold miner also accused South Africa’s other gold-mining companies of risking the sector’s future.
The JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) was marginally lower by midday on Tuesday, due to the firmer rand against the United States dollar. The rand was quoted at R6,68 per US dollar from R6,76 when the JSE closed on Friday, while gold was quoted at $396,70 an ounce from $396,70/oz at the JSE’s previous close.
Spot platinum on Monday touched a two-and-a-half month low of $824 an ounce on continued long position liquidation, due to the strong United States dollar. At 12.15pm, platinum was quoted at $829/oz, down $19.50/oz from Friday’s New York close of $848,50/oz. Earlier on Monday, the euro fell to a five-month low of $1,1762.
Despite a marginally firmer rand gold price, South Africa’s three major gold miners are likely to report that earnings remained under pressure during the March 2004 quarter, a survey of seven analysts shows. AngloGold is forecast to report adjusted headline earnings per share of 194 cents, down 15% from the December 2003 quarter.
South Africa’s Chamber of Mines said on Tuesday that it is deeply concerned over media speculation that the proposed new beneficiation law will force mines to add value to their output. Speculative reports are linked to the publication last Friday of the draft Precious Metals and Diamonds General Amendment Bill.
The JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) was lower by Friday due to the firmer rand against the dollar. The rand was quoted at R6,49 per dollar, from R6,61 when the JSE closed on Thursday, while gold was quoted at $399,50 an ounce, up from $397,90/oz at the JSE’s last close.
Precious-metals consultancy GFMS has forecast that the United States dollar gold price could recover from its current levels of just less than $400 a troy ounce to test $450/oz on global political and economic uncertainties in 2004, GFMS said in a statement on Thursday.