Company News in Brief

Pan African Resources looking to acquire Tennant Mining Mid-tier miner Pan African Resources announced it would issue $50.8 million (R887 million) worth of its shares to acquire the 92% of Australian miner Tennant Consolidated Mining it doesn't already own. The group had acquired an initial 8% stake in March, with the shares to be issued representing less than 6% of what it has in issue. The group said the move is complementary to Pan African's current portfolio of high-margin, long-life surface re-mining operations and provides the opportunity to acquire near term, low-cost and low-risk production growth in a Tier 1 mining jurisdiction, it said. The Tennant Creek Gold Field in Australia's Northern Territory was discovered in the early 1930s and was mined until the early 2000s when the gold price halted of mining activities in this region. Tennant, however, has moved to rebuild a processing plant using surface material and commissioning using expected during June 2025, with expected production of 50 000 ounces per year for the first three years of operation. Pan African produced about 186 000 ounces in its year to end-June, and it also operates in Sudan. It also announced on Tuesday that it has again suspended exploration activities in that country due to ongoing political unrest.-FIN24Murray and Roberts HEPS under pressure Mining services and engineering firm Murray and Roberts (M&R) warned its headline earnings per share are expected to fall by at least 20% in its six months to end-December. The group cited liquidity constraints, which resulted in delays in procurement and project progress, especially at OptiPower's projects in the renewable energy sector. The group has also been working with De Beers at that company's Venetia diamond mine in Limpopo for over a decade and has been informed that a "significant portion" of the works will be imminently descoped. The contract represents more than 50% of its local mining business. Despite these headwinds, the group's order book expanded, reflecting operational quality and client trust in the group's core service offering, it said. The group said it is engaged with institutions on a working capital facility, and it is also considering disposals of non-core assets to address its liquidity issues.-FIN24Sibanye-Stillwater reports 9% profit climb Mining group Sibanye-Stillwater reported a 9% year-on-year climb in core profit to R3.3 billion in the three months to end-September. This profit measure rocketing 292% to R1.35 billion for SA gold, in part due to a 24% rise in prices. Its Century operation in Australia also saw a zinc production climb of 9% amid operational stability and higher prices, reporting a 966% increase in adjusted ebitda to R565 million. Its platinum group metal operations fared less well, but the group is now eyeing about a significant boost from the US Inflation Reduction Act. It also reported an improvement in safety metrics, with its fatal injury frequency rate improving by 30%, while its total recordable injury frequency rate improved by 11%.-FIN24Boeing strike ends Striking workers at Boeing approved a new contract proposal on Monday, ending a more than seven-week stoppage that had cost the beleaguered aviation giant billions. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 751 said it had ratified the offer by a vote of 59% after rejecting two prior offers. The move will send some 33 000 Seattle-area employees back to work and restore operations at two major assembly plants at a time when Boeing is trying to recover from multiple setbacks. The contract includes a 38% wage hike, a $12 000 (R210 000) signing bonus and provisions to lift employer contributions to a 401K retirement plan and contain health care costs. But the contract does not restore Boeing's former pension plan that had been sought by older workers. Jon Holden, head of the Seattle union, described the agreement as a win for workers who were determined to make up for more than a decade of stagnant wages from prior negotiations that had enraged many rank-and-file workers. "The strike will end and now it's our job to get back to work and start building the airplanes, increase the rates and bring this company back to financial success," Holden said at a news conference. - AFPoden satellite, built by Japanese researchers, was launched into space on Tuesday, in an early test of using timber in lunar and Mars exploration. LignoSat, developed by Kyoto University and homebuilder Sumitomo Forestry, will be flown to the International Space Station on a SpaceX mission, and later released into orbit about 400 km (250 miles) above the Earth. Named after the Latin word for "wood", the palm-sized LignoSat is tasked to demonstrate the cosmic potential of the renewable material as humans explore living in space. "With timber, a material we can produce by ourselves, we will be able to build houses, live and work in space forever," said Takao Doi, an astronaut who has flown on the Space Shuttle and studies human space activities at Kyoto University. With a 50-year plan of planting trees and building timber houses on the moon and Mars, Doi's team decided to develop a NASA-certified wooden satellite to prove wood is a space-grade material. "Early 1900s airplanes were made of wood," said Kyoto University forest science professor Koji Murata. "A wooden satellite should be feasible, too." Wood is more durable in space than on Earth because there's no water or oxygen that would rot or inflame it, Murata added. - ReutersSuez Canal Economic Zone set for rapid expansionEgypt's Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCEZ) has invested $3 billion on infrastructure over the past few years and has plans to invest a similar amount over the next few years as it works to attract investors, its chairman said in an interview.The zone, a collection of six ports and four industrial areas alongside, or near the waterway, has been given special legal and tax advantages to benefit from the vast amount of international shipping passing by.While government-run, it is administratively separate from the canal. Attacks on Red Sea shipping by Yemen's Houthis, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, has diverted traffic from the Suez Canal, causing revenue to fall by nearly $3 billion in the first half of 2024 to $1.83 billion.The political instability in the region has emphasised the advantage of diversification and hedging, Gamal El-Dein said, adding investments have paid off, with a boom in new projects over the last 24 months."We have been able to attract more than $6.3 billion of investments in various sectors and logistics and ports, and 164 projects, seven of which were in our ports, and the remainder factories and logistics sites within the zone," Gamal El-Dein said, adding that he expected this number to grow sharply."We're looking for something much higher than this," he said. "Already this year, we have attracted close to $1 billion -- in the first four months of the fiscal year," which began in July.-REUTERS

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