South African iron ore miner Assmang said that it had been affected by negative market conditions and forecast weaker earnings for the six months to December. Assmang said headline and attributable earnings per share would be between R69 and R77 per share, compared to headline earnings of R99,49 per share and attributable earnings of R101.87 per share in the previous year.

The firm, which is majority-owned by South Africa's biggest black owned diversified miner, African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), said sales volumes and in respect of metal prices, particularly for manganese ore, ferromanganese and ferrochrome alloys had been affected by the negative market conditions.

Assmang also said it had approved the construction of a new export iron ore mine on its Bruce, King, Mokaning properties (BKM mine), in the country's Northern Cape Province. Construction of the BKM mine would start in the early part of this year, with the first phase resulting in a new 8,4-million ton per annum export iron ore mine at an estimated total capital cost of R3,2-billion.