Mining: Exxaro buys Total’s coal unit

EXXARO Resources’s $472 million (R5.6 billion) purchase of Total’s South African coal unit had to benefit local communities if it was to win a mining licence, the mines minister said. “I must be satisfied that those people who are hosts” to the mine were beneficiaries of its output, Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi told a meeting between government officials and businessmen in Johannesburg yesterday. According to section 11 of South Africa’s mining law, companies can’t transfer, assign or dispose of mining rights without his written consent. Spokesman for Exxaro, Hilton Atkinson, did not immediately respond to a call for comment. – Bloomberg