This podcast is brought to you by Ukwazi Mining - Bringing relevant mining, engineering & strategic consultancy services to a dynamic industry.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon de Ryhove.

Making headlines today:

The capital markets regulator of Mauritius is unsure whether a pending deal between the country's stock exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange should happen.

The JSE is waiting for regulatory approval to buy a stake in the Mauritius Stock Exchange as part of its plan to expand its presence in the region.

JSE CEO Russell Loubser says that the regulator doesn't know whether the deal should happen, because he doesn't have enough information to give an answer.

The Mauritian regulator hasn't been forthcoming about what additional information is needed.

South Africa's State-owned electricity utility Eskom has awarded a new 1,1-billion-rand contract to global power and transport equipment manufacturer Alstom for an instrumentation and control system for its 100-billion-rand, 4 800-MW Medupi coal-fired power station being built in Limpopo province.

The French multinational, which is the world's third-largest builder of power plants, has also extended an option to install an identical system at Eskom's Kusile facility, which is currently being built in Mpumalanga province.

Alstom says that, under the terms of the new Medupi contract, it will engineer, supply and install its latest distributed control system, the ALSPA Series 6, as well as related instrumentation.

The company says that the control system will ensure safe, efficient monitoring and control of the plant's critical equipment, and support Medupi's integration into Eskom's existing fleet of 23 power stations, comprising 124 units with a nominal generation capacity of some 40 000 MW.

Also making headlines:

Telecommunications operator Telkom sees market opportunity in South Africa in mobile voice and mobile data.
A report shows that the global water shortfall can be ‘affordably' mitigated.
Construction and engineering group Grinaker-LTA has been awarded the construction contract for a new 394-million-rand hospital in the Western Cape.
And, Zambia faces electricity rationing.

That's a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories please visit engineeringnews.co.za.