MINISTERS from six African states, including some of the world’s poorest countries, have agreed to increase education spending over the next 15 years. A joint statement issued after talks in the Malian capital Bamako committed the six countries of West Africa’s Sahel region to raising spending on education and on basic education in particular. Fewer […]

MINING and metals group Billiton has won the concession to develop the La Granja copper project in Peru’s northern Andes, one of the biggest copper deposits in the world. Mexican mining concern Grupo Mexico, the world’s third largest copper miner and owner of 54.2% of Southern Peru Copper, Peru’s biggest mining company, had also been […]

ELLIS MNYANDU, Johannesburg | Tuesday THE South African labour ministry, which has been criticised for lax occupational health standards, has launched a safety inspection blitz on factories near Johannesburg following the death of 11 workers last week in an explosion at a floor-polish factory in Lenasia. A team headed by labour ministry Director-General Rams Ramashia […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday SOUTH African sugar and aluminium group Tongaat-Hulett is to look for offshore buys after its billion rand bid for a smaller sugar producer was denied by the country’s competition watchdog. South Africa’s Competition Tribunal this week rejected Tongaat-Huletts’ bid to buy Transvaal Suiker Beperk (TSB), saying it would lessen competition […]

SUGAR production in the Republic Of Congo hit a record 43690 tonnes for the year 2000 – the largest amount since the creation of SARIS, the country’s only sugar company. SARIS produced only 31000 tonnes in 1999 due to fighting in the south of the country at the beginning of the year. The company plans […]

MINER Durban Roodepoort Deep said it had bid more than R1bn to secure the Elandsrand, Deelkraal and Savuka mines from world number one producer AngloGold. The purchases would offer synergies to Durban Deep’s existing mine at Blyvoor. AngloGold said it was talking to suitors regarding its Elandsrand, Deelkraal and other assets in the Free State. […]

MARIAM ISA, Pretoria | Tuesday SOUTH Africa’s economy grew more slowly than expected in the third quarter of 2000, but sweeping revisions to official data released this week showed the economy was stronger than many had believed. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 3.8% between July and September compared with the previous quarter, well below […]

JEREMY LOVELL, Cape Town | Tuesday THE world’s biggest floating diamond processing vessel will set sail for the first time within three weeks and should be in position off Namibia before Christmas, the Namibian Minerals Corporation (NAMCO) said this week. NAMCO chairman Alastair Holberton told reporters he expected the vessel would harvest 200000 carats of […]

ANGOLA’S oil minister Jose Maria Botelho Vasconcelos said international oil firms developing huge fields offshore from the southern African country may have to negotiate new terms on future field developments. International oil firms have discovered more than seven billion barrels of oil in deep water off Angola’s Atlantic seaboard but the impoverished war-torn country’s share […]

ALLAN SECCOMBE, Johannesburg | Tuesday SOUTH Africa’s mining industry is haemorrhaging skilled workers and squandering opportunities to tap into the mineral wealth of its neighbours, says Gold Fields chief executive Chris Thompson. Thompson, who is also chairman of Gold Fields Ltd, South Africa’s second largest bullion producer, said there were a number of measures the […]