Financial Times Blog – China is not the only country intent on taking a bigger slice of Africa’s resource sector. An Australian government report out on Tuesday said 220 of the country’s mining and oil companies now operated in 42 African countries. Their projects have tripled in number to 595 in the past six years, although this has not yet translated into more commerce: two-way merchandise trade between Africa and Australia has flatlined at about A$5.4bn in recent years.

Ahead of this week’s mining Indaba, a big conference in Cape Town, Australian officials are keen to emphasise the credentials of their home-grown mining companies, presumably with an eye to building stronger economic links between the continents.

Mining is Canberra’s trump card. The Australian mining sector is one of the most developed and technologically advanced in the world and includes industry big boys like BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto all the way down to tiny explorers as well as a host of equipment and service providers.

Greg Hull, Australia’s trade commissioner to sub-Saharan Africa, says much of Africa’s natural resources are still unexploited and the prices for its commodities, ranging from coal to iron ore, will be underpinned by demand from China and India.

“It’s a very competitive continent and it’s exciting compared with the mining industry in Europe and the US,” he says.

Australia’s reinvigorated interest in Africa may also have a political dimension.

Kevin Rudd, Australian’s foreign minister, wants to secure one of the non-permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council and Africa’s support could be crucial to that goal when the vote is taken next year.

When he met a host of African leaders during a trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, last month, Rudd said Australian companies had already ploughed A$20bn into African mining projects. Canberra, he added, wanted to look west across the Indian Ocean to deepen its engagement with Africa.

South Boulder Mines Limited is an Australian-listed exploration and development company focusing on multiple gold, nickel and fertilizer prospects primarily located in Western Australia and Eritrea in North East of Africa. One of South Boulder’s main areas of focus is on its Duketon Greenstone Belt projects which contain the exciting new Rosie NiCu-PGE discovery.

The Company owns 100% of all gold prospects and participates in a farm-out Joint Venture with Independence Group NL (earning 70%) for nickel sulphide prospects within the same area.

South Boulder Mines Ltd has a 100% interest in the recently acquired Colluli Potash Project located in the Danakil Depression region of Eritrea (Africa) approximately 200km south east of the Capital Asmara.

South Boulder also has three (90-100%) owned fertilizer exploration projects in Western Australia, the Lake Disappointment Potash Project in the Gibson Desert, the Cardabia Phosphate Project in the Carnarvon Basin and the Georgina Basin Phosphate Project in the Northern Territory.

The Company’s existing fertilizer projects have also added value to the Company’s portfolio due to recent successful confirmation drilling at Colluli and increased global demand.

Given due diligence and valuation estimations based on discounted cash flow method and comparables, Arrowhead believes that South Boulder mines limited fair share value lies in the AS$1.17 to AS$8.08 bracket.

This valuation is based solely on the Duketon Nickel and Eritrean Potash project and does not take account of the potential value of the company’s Terminator Gold prospect. We have presented a comparable valuation based on Enterprise Value/resource and Enterprise Value /proposed capacity to ascertain the value the Nickel and Potash prospects respectively.

Please click on the link below to view the full ABID Report on South Boulder Mines Ltd

http://www.southbouldermines.com.au/images/uploads/101020_SOUTH_BOULDER_MINES_-_ABID_Report_-_20Oct10.pdf

MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM–(Marketwire – Feb. 15, 2010) – The 2009 gold production statistics indicate that South Africa has dropped to third place in the table of the world’s leading gold producers.

Once the world’s biggest producer, by quite some way, South Africa saw its gold production fall a further 5% during the course of 2009. The nation produced a total of 222 tonnes during the year. South Africa remains the biggest producing nation on the African continent, however, by a massive margin. Ghana, the second biggest gold producer from the continent, produced just 80 tonnes.

However, South Africa now lags behind both China and Australia on the global gold production scale. While Australia produced just marginally more of the precious metal, China produced a huge 330 tonnes during 2009, positioning them comfortably at the top of the table.

While demand for gold remains high, with both new and experienced investors alike rushing to buy gold in the face of an inconsistent dollar, the mining industry faces tough competition from scrap recycling.

Gold does remain an attractive investment, however, with a more diverse demographic taking advantage of online gold trading websites such as Gold Made Simple, to purchase the precious metal. The increasing popularity of online gold trading means the process is now less elitist and with the commodity receiving more press attention than ever before, its popularity with investors looks set to continue to rise.

PRETORIA, Feb 8, NNN-BUANEWS report that South Africa and Australia have signed an agreement which will frame future bilateral co-operation on climate change issues.

The letter of intent was signed on Friday by Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean and Minister for Water and Environmental Affairs Buyelwa Sonjica.

The two nations have been co-operating on climate change matters under a Climate Change Partnership since 2006.

The Department of Water and Environmental Affairs said the signing of the letter formalised continued co-operation under this partnership.

Both countries agreed to identify as well develop and implement a further programme of joint activities such as addressing climate change and biodiversity; greenhouse gas emissions reporting and monitoring at national and entity levels.

The signing of the agreement in Pretoria came at the end of Crean’s visit to South Africa where he promoted Australia’s trade, economic and strategic interests with Africa.

Speaking in Cape Town at the Mining Indaba conference, Crean announced that Australia would provide AUD 500,000 to four West African universities to support capacity building of the mining sector in West Africa.

“The Australian Government is committed to strengthening the relationship with Africa that has been neglected for too long. We want to substantially enhance engagement with the countries and regional institutions of Africa which is home to almost one billion people” Crean said.

At the Mining Indaba conference, Crean held bilateral meetings with mining ministers from South Africa, Tanzania, Mozambique, Ghana, Senegal, Eritrea and Namibia.