SRK Consulting partner and principal mining geotechnical engineer William Joughin tells Mining Weekly that deep-level mining in South Africa is suffering from a severe shortage of qualified rock engineers.

The ever-increasing demand for commodities is resulting in the growth of mining operations, Joughin notes.
“This significant growth is creating the demand for qualified rock engineers, which has yet to be met,” he says.
He adds that, locally, the shortage is exacerbated by rock engineers leaving South Africa to pursue other attractive opportunities in Australia and Canada.

South Africa's freight logistics group Transnet [TRAN.UL] said on Thursday that it had closed two lines linking coal mines with the Richards Bay export terminal after a derailment.

Xstrata and Chugoku Electric have settled an annual coal contract for the Japanese fiscal year starting April 1 at a record level of around $130 per tonne, over 30 percent higher than last year's contract, sources told Reuters on Friday.

A Chilean court on Thursday suspended an order to halt world No. 1 copper producer Codelco's Ventanas smelter following an environmental incident, and the state miner said it would normalize operations as soon as possible.

The vast majority of Australia's coal mines will not face materially higher costs under a polluter-pays scheme designed to reduce carbon emissions, according to Treasury Department documents released by the government on Friday.

Greystar Resources Ltd. (TSX:GSL)(AIM:GSL) reports that diamond drilling continues to encounter significant gold-silver-copper mineralization below and to the south of the oxide/transitional mineral resource on the multi-million ounce Angostura deposit in northeastern Colombia.

Orocobre Limited (TSX:ORL)(ASX:ORE) reports a substantially increased and upgraded resource estimate at its flagship Salar de Olaroz lithium-potash project in Jujuy province in north-west Argentina. This follows completion of a comprehensive resource definition drilling program undertaken throughout 2010.

Thompson Creek Metals completed a $132 million equipment financing facility with Cat Financial Services Limited. Cat Financial has agreed to underwrite up to $132 million in mobile fleet equipment financing for Thompson Creek’s Mt. Milligan copper-gold mine located in British Columbia.

Osisko Mining Corporation (TSX:OSK)(FRANKFURT:EWX) is pleased to provide an updated reserve and resource estimate for its 100%-owned Canadian Malartic project. This new […]