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Thursday, November 27, 2008.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon O'Donnell.

Making headlines today:

On Wednesday, the Department of Minerals and Energy's director of nuclear non-proliferation Elsie Monale said that South Africa would implement interventions with regard to the export of uranium. This is to ensure that the country retained an adequate supply for its own electricity-generation needs.

Monale said that South Africa and Southern Africa had an abundance of uranium and that the country should benefit from its minerals.

She noted that South Africa was currently supplying uranium only to the export market and wouldn't be drawn on how the DME or government planned to intervene in the export of uranium.

However, former deputy director general Gordon Sibiya said that the government wouldn't nationalise uranium mines. He said the intention of such intervention was purely to ensure that South Africa had sufficient stocks of uranium to satisfy its own generation needs.

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JSE-listed fertiliser, chemical, and explosive producer Omnia warned that its agriculture division was unlikely to keep up its growth in the six months ahead. The agriculture division is currently its main contributor to profit.

MD Rod Humphris said that results from its agriculture division were bound to decline by about 10% year-on-year in the second half of its financial year.

This was mostly owing to the credit crunch currently affecting the markets, as well as a result of farmers cutting back on fertiliser demand.

Although demand would still be strong, interim results for the six-month period ended September would also not be equalled. The agriculture division doubled its revenue in the interim period from 971-million rand to 2,15-billion rand. Operating profit surged by 311%.

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Also making headlines:

South Africa's power is tight after a nuclear unit is shut down.
The Vatican unveils its ambitious solar energy plans.
Renewable energy company Principle Energy plans to start building a 290-million dollar bioethanol plant in Mozambique in 2009.
And, Kenya starts a 99-milliion dollar oil pipeline expansion.

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