LONRHO MINING will commission a dense media separation plant at its Lulo diamond concession in Angola during May or June, it said yesterday. The sampling of the first pipe at the project was also expected to be under way by July. The project has been rated as one of the most prospective diamond concessions, with a long history of alluvial diamond recovery. LONRHO owns a 39% stake in the Lulo diamond concession, which cover an area of 3 000 km². Government-owned diamond company ENDIAMA owns 51% of the company, while local people own the remaining 10% stake.

BHP BILLITON yesterday reported that it had reached sales terms for a significant portion of its hard coking coal volumes for 2010, with customers in Europe, China, India and Japan. The deals were based on a "structural change" to shorter-term market-based pricing for the contract period. BHP said the settlements reflected the company's commitment to achieving market-clearing prices over time, across all its bulk commodities. On Friday it was reported Japanese steelmaker JFE HOLDINGS had agreed a coking coal price of $200/t for April to June - that represented a 55% increase from the benchmark price for the 2009/10 financial year of $129/t.

The Gautrain Management Agency today dismissed as "spurious" a claim of more than R10bn by the BOMBELA consortium for reported delays in the construction process. GMA CEO JACK VAN DER MERWE said the province had come to the conclusion that the concessionaire had a spurious claim which the province was convinced would have very little chance of succeeding. Should the concessionaire proceed with this claim, it would be referred to arbitration for adjudication, VAN DER MERWE said. BOMBELA submitted a "Delay and Disruption Submission" in Aug. last year, for more than R10bn, saying that the Gauteng government handed over building sites late and in a different sequence from what had been agreed upon. This upset the contractor's planning and involved additional expenses, but VAN DER MERWE said it was a "common occurrence" on mega infrastructure projects.

FIRSTRAND expects business volumes to remain subdued after posting lower first-half profit as bad debts continue to hurt its corporate unit. Diluted HPES for the six months to end-Dec. fell 2% to 85.3c from 87.3c y/y. Overall impairments fell 13% to R3.2bn and the group's credit loss ratio stood at 1.52% of advances. FIRSTRAND highlighted Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Angola as key markets.

DIMENSION DATA yesterday announced it has invested more than R1bn in SA technology infrastructure over the past three years. The spend on infrastructure included R984m on a hosting and network infrastructure, R200m towards the SEACOM cable, a R20m datacenter, a voice network and the roll out of African points of presence to ensure that the company has a robust and comprehensive Pan-African network. The SA IT services market grew by 25.2% in 2007 to a total value of R27bn in 2008. The market was expected to grow to a value of R38.6bn by 2013, at a rate of 7.4%.

FIRSTRAND produced almost unchanged interim earnings. EArnings rose 1% and management expected a "subdued" second half to its financial year. Earnings at the group rose 1% to R4.6bn for the six months to end-Dec. The interim dividend was unchanged at 34cps. Banking operations at the group contributed the lion's share of the earnings delivering R4bn in profits. MOMENTUM produced R850m, while there was a R283m accounted loss at FIRSTRAND operations following distributions to shareholders. A pleasing sign is that overall impairments decreased 13% from R3.7bn to R3.2bn. This is attributed to signs that the interest rate cutting cycle is finally being felt by consumers.

DIGICORE HOLDINGS witnessed a 57% decline in fully diluted HEPS from 24.7c to 10.7c for the six months to end Dec. Group revenue decreased from R288m for the six months to R249m for the review period. The group said that gross margins have been under pressure mainly due to growth in lower-margin SVR units and a severe decline in the traditionally higher-margin fleet management products. Net profit after tax reduced by 59% from R56.7m to R22.8m for the interim period. Looking ahead, the group said that all indications were that the group had weathered the worst, with the lowest sales recorded during Apr. and Aug. 2009. DIGICORE didn't retrench skilled labour and were well placed to capitalise on the upturn in the world economy.

CERAMIC INDUSTRIES lifted diluted HEPS by 29.3% from 376.1c to 486.5c for the six months to end-Jan. This was on the back of an 8.2% growth in revenue from R702.8m to R779.9m. The board declared an interim dividend of 140cps compared to 110c y/y. Tile and sanitary wear consumption remained constrained, although a slight improvement inthe renovation market became evident towards the end of the period under review. Tile revenue improved 10.3% to R672.4m, average selling prices increased by approx. 6% during the period under review. Tile sales volumes across the group improved from 17 215 million m² to 17 667 million m², with the bulk of the increased experienced in Australia where sales volumes increased 35%. Tile production increased 9.2% from 15 528 million m² to 16 963 million m². Revenue from the group's sanitaryware factories declined 3.2% to R107.5m. Sales and production volumes decreased by 13% and 24% for BETTA and AQUARIUS respectively. Group operating profit increased 24.4% to R115.4m. Operating profit from tiles increased 38.6% to R121.8m. Sanitaryware operating profit declined from a profit of R4.9m to a loss of R6.4m. The group's cash reserve increased from R155m to R329.2m, largely due to the cash generative nature of the business, improved margins, reduced inventories, reduced receivables and reduced capex during the review period. Net asset value per share increased 11.4% to 7 646c.

The unbundling of MVELAPHANDA RESOURCES has been delayed until at least the second half of 2010 because of the company's dispute with the KHUMAMA consortium over the terms of the Booysendal transaction. The arbitration hearing over the dispute has been set for the first two weeks in May. The unbundling cannot go ahead until a ruling has been given, which has implications for MVELA's listing on the JSE as the company is a pyramid structure whith the JSE will not allow to continue to be listed. MVELA says the JSE has granted "dispensation from the pyramid company rules until the end of Jun. 2010.

VOX TELECOM's CFO, MIKE VON HOLDT, will leave the company at the end of March, but VOX has not provided any reasons for his departure. He will be succeeded by GERT KOEN from the beginning of April. KOEN joined the group in Jan. 2004 as assistant financial mamager for VOX ORION and was later promoted to financial manager.