Western Australia's Pilbara region is best known today as one of the world's biggest sources of iron ore and manganese – principally the former. These minerals are shipped out of Port Hedland to the hungry markets of north Asia and India, where demand for steel seems insatiable and likely to hold up for a good many years to come. In 2012, out of a total of 245 million tonnes of every kind of cargo that was exported through Hedland, 97 percent was accounted for by iron ore, 0.8 percent by manganese.

According to the most recent World Bank economic update published late in 2012, “Tanzania stands out as a model of sound economic performance with a growth rate of over six percent in 2011 and 2012.” Tanzania’s economic prospects look positive over the period for 2012-14, the report goes on to say, when its GDP is forecast to grow at a rate of 6.5 to 7 percent. In economic terms Tanzania was a rock of stability in 2011/12, recording solid growth and strengthened fiscal discipline despite increases in the rate of inflation.

Since the early 1930s the mining industry has been the economic and social backbone of Zambia. In the decades since the country’s economy has been heavily reliant on the mining of copper and cobalt. Today the country is internationally recognised as a premier producer of these products, and is ranked as the world’s seventh largest producer of copper, generating 3.3 percent of the western world’s total production.

Renowned for the quality of its product, which has proven to be the lifeblood of the Kenyan construction industry over the last 80 years, the East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) has been the country’s leading cement manufacturer since it was founded in 1933.

Originally known as The Associated Manganese Mines of South Africa Limited, Assmang as it exists today bears very little resemblance to the fledgling company that started work on the Northern Cape’s manganese fields in 1935. Today, the three operating divisions benefit from the modern mining infrastructure and technologies, while Assmang’s “we do it better” philosophy has helped to ensure low operating costs and high employee buy-in.

Under the $650 million deal, which also includes the copper mine’s associated San Manuel Arizona Railroad Company (SMARRCO), Capstone will assume the business's environmental liabilities, and BHP Billiton employees working at Pinto Valley and SMARRCO will become employees of Capstone.

BHP has been looking to restructure its business and offload non-core assets, amid a decline in global demand and falling commodity prices. The mining group has said that it wants to focus on core businesses such as iron ore and coal.

Helped by the weaker yen and the money it has raised from asset sales, the Japanese consumer electronics firm now expects to report net income of 40 billion yen compared to its previous forecast of 20 billion yen.

A weaker currency increases the value of Sony's overseas revenues when repatriated back into yen. Sony said it had assumed an average foreign exchange rate of 88 yen to one US dollar for the first three months of this year. But the actual rate had turned out to be 92 yen to one US dollar.

It marks the first time that Australia’s central bank will invest in sovereign bonds of an Asian country other than Japan. It follows events of earlier this month when the Australian dollar became the third currency to trade directly with the Chinese yuan.