Hello Peter
Here is another NR of interest:
May 03, 1999 10:56
S.Africa bourse to launch junior mining sector
JOHANNESBURG, May 3 (Reuters) - The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), home to the world's biggest gold, platinum and diamond producers, is planning to launch a junior mining sector later this year, an official at the bourse said on Monday.
Rudi Bam, technical manager in the JSE listings department, said the bourse was drafting listing requirements for the new sector which will house smaller miners who have passed the exploration phase and completed a feasibility study.
"Junior mining will sit in between mining producers and mining exploration," Bam told Reuters.
He said they were still discussing how to separate junior mining and mining producers, with various options, like market capitalisation or the size of ore deposit, under review.
"We will most probably be in a position by the end of this month to go public with the requirements for the sector....It could be launched around August or September," he said.
Bam said the creation of the sector in resource-rich South Africa followed demand from the market and came at a time when resource stocks worldwide were coming back into favour.
Shares in resources companies listed in Johannesburg have soared over the past six weeks on a growing belief around the globe that bombed-out commodity cycles were in line for a turnaround in the next 12-18 months, spurred by a recovery in demand from Asian economies.
Bam said the bourse would examine moving already-listed smaller mining companies to the new sector if they matched the requirements.
The Toronto Stock Exchange is the world's best known junior mining haven, but two years after the exposure of the massive Bre-X gold fraud it is still struggling to win back market confidence.
Busang, the Indonesian gold mine once owned by Canada's Bre-X Minerals, was touted as the gold find of the century, but independent testing showed it to be a massive hoax.
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