Angloplat keeps 2011 target, Q1 output down
JOHANNESBURG, April 21 (Reuters) – Anglo Platinum (AMSJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz),
the world’s No. 1 producer of the precious metal, kept its
full-year production target on Thursday despite a 5 percent fall
in first-quarter output attributed to safety stoppages.
Anglo Platinum, majority-owned by Anglo American Plc
(AAL.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), said equivalent refined platinum output was 568,000
ounces in the quarter to the end of March, a fall of 5 percent
compared to the first quarter of 2010.
South Africa’s DRDGold plans Blyvoor mine sale
JOHANNESBURG, April 19 (Reuters) – DRDGold (DRDJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research), South
Africa’s fourth-largest gold producer, said on Tuesday it
planned to sell its Blyvoor mine in a move that could bring it
needed cash but may be an asset that only a few would want.
The mid-tier miner also said output fell as expected in the
March quarter, while headline earnings per share rose because of
a deferred tax credit.
Widespread violations in South Africa mine sector
PRETORIA (Reuters) – South Africa has found widespread violations during an audit of miners and other mineral rights holders in the country, minerals minister Susan Shabangu said on Monday.
Shabangu said the inspections, conducted during a moratorium on the awarding of new prospecting rights, had resulted in over 400 notices being issued for prospecting violations. Over 700 notices were issued for environmental violations.
Vale launches $1.1 billion bid for S.Africa’s Metorex
JOHANNESBURG/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazil’s Vale (VALE5.SA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s largest iron ore producer, bid $1.1 billion for Metorex Ltd (MTXJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to tap into its copper and cobalt operations and drive growth via resource-rich Africa.
The 7.5 billion rand offer at 7.35 rand per Metorex share was a 20 percent premium to the South African miner’s closing price on March 25, the last business day before a cautionary announcement related to the matter was made.
Do tax havens contribute to African poverty?
Tax havens have been blamed (and lauded in some quarters) for many things. But a new book that is causing quite a stir says they are a key reason behind African poverty and underdevelopment.
“Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World” by Nicholas Shaxson argues among other things that they are “deep drains of development.”
Exclusive: Data reveal huge sums spirited out of Angola
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Almost $6 billion was spirited out of Angola in 2009, according to new data on Wednesday that highlight how much of the war-scarred African nation’s oil wealth is stolen by a corrupt elite.
Calculations provided to Reuters by the Washington-based anti-corruption advocacy group Global Financial Integrity (GFI) suggest funds worth nearly a sixth of Angola’s entire annual budget flowed illicitly out of the country in the last year for which data are available.
Does FRC index underline weak link between faith and family?
The conservative Christian, Washington-based Family Research Council (FRC) has just released its first “Annual Index of Family Belonging and Rejection.” You can click here to see its full details.
The “Index of Belonging” is 45 percent and that of “Rejection” is 55 percent. The report’s author, Patrick Fagan, who heads FRC’s Marriage and Religion Research Institute, says the following:
Family Research Council to issue “Index of Family Belonging and Rejection”
Indices are all the rage these days. In his recently published and thought-provoking ”Why the West Rules — For Now,” historian Ian Morris has created an “index on social development” which, among other things, attempts to measure the West and East’s “energy capture.”
There are of course plenty of other examples (and future historians will no doubt see it as a sign of our times — as Morris notes, ages get the “thought they need”). The latest addition to this swelling modern family of indices will come on Wednesday when the conservative, Washington-based Family Research Council (FRC) releases its first annual “Index of Family Belonging and Rejection.” The index is a product of its Marriage and Religion Research Institute.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and abortion at U.S. military bases…
One little-reported aspect of the political wrangling around attempts to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that bans gays from serving openly in the U.S. military was how the religious right tied it to another hot-button cultural issue: abortion.
This would certainly have caught the attention of socially conservative Republicans who were instrumental in defeating a measure aimed at its repeal in the U.S. Senate on Thursday night.
Most U.S. Protestant pastors doubt Beck, Obama are Christians-poll
What do conservative TV and radio personality Glenn Beck and U.S. President Barack Obama have in common? Most U.S. Protestant pastors doubt their Christian credentials.
These are among the findings of a survey released this week by LifeWay Research, the number-crunching arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, which sometimes does interesting pastor polls.
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