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Jonathan Leslie and Ian Cockerill reemerge at Extract Resources and Petmin.

JOHANNESBURG - It's another beautiful day in Africa as Jonathan Leslie and Ian Cockerill, two well known mining executives, re-emerge, from possibly garden leave, as respectively, CEO of Australia and Toronto-listed Extract Resources, and executive chairman of Johannesburg- and London-listed Petmin.

One of Africa's brightest stories of 2009 came from Extract (market value: $1.6bn) which declared its Rössing South discovery in Namibia as one of the biggest-ever uranium finds - in the world. Petmin (JSE:PET), a miner of anthracite and silica, was on Monday described by Cockerill as having emerged from "a cash shell with a market cap of just R25m in 2004 to a profitable, cash generative, operating mining company, with approximately 700 employees and a market capitalisation of more than R1.4bn" (about $180m).

Namibian uranium stocks
	Stock	From	From	Value
	price	high*	low*	$ bn
Forsys	CAD 4.04	-39.7%	46.4%	0.302
Paladin	AUD 3.61	-34.6%	34.7%	2.316
Extract Resources	AUD 7.25	-36.7%	249.1%	1.574
Marenica	AUD 0.17	-39.3%	183.3%	0.068
Deep Yellow	AUD 0.24	-50.0%	135.0%	0.237
Bannerman	AUD 0.54	-64.0%	11.5%	0.097
Xemplar Energy	CAD 0.18	-68.2%	25.0%	0.020
Pitchstone Exploration	CAD 0.40	-23.1%	142.4%	0.013
Toro Energy	AUD 0.12	-59.6%	27.8%	0.111
Kalahari Minerals	GBP 1.73	-20.2%	179.4%	0.551
Diversifieds
Rio Tinto	GBP 33.36	-11.8%	152.4%	120.166
Areva	EUR 338.70	-28.7%	11.6%	15.834
* 12-month

Cockerill in March 2008 said he would be leaving transnational gold miner Gold Fields

($8bn) as CEO, a position he held from June 2002, to a position in the coal sector. He re-emerged as head of the coal division at transnational diversified group Anglo American ($48bn), but this was a position that was made redundant last year as CEO Cynthia Carroll cut out yet another management level.

Leslie was on the board of global diversified stock Rio Tinto for nine years before taking over as CEO of Johannesburg based transnational forest products player Sappi. It was there that Leslie had the good fortune of working with Eugene van As, known for some good reason as "Mr Sappi", and more so when he returned from retirement to run the group after Leslie suddenly departed.

With the possible benefit of a more highly developed taste for adventure, Leslie then went on an extended safari to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as CEO of London-listed Nikanor. That would disappear early in 2008, when London- and Canada-listed Katanga Mining merged with Nikanor, owner of the KOV pit, an integral part of the original Katanga Mining property.

Nikanor was listed in London in July 2006, when it raised $380m in cash; it then raised a further $777m a year later. Much of the second tranche came by way of Glencore (now effectively the controlling force of Katanga Mining), the Switzerland-based commodities trader and resources investor.

When Nikanor merged with Katanga Mining, $452m in cash was returned to Nikanor shareholders as part of the merger deal, which included Nikanor shareholders then holding 60% of the merged entity. Within months, as copper prices headed south, Katanga Mining was in the news talking about the possibility of raising hundreds of millions of dollars in debt.

Katanga Mining experienced several painful recapitalisations, but has again emerged in one basic piece, enveloped by the rich and magnificently challenging Kamoto and KOV mines.

*Selected DRC/Zambia copper-cobalt stocks*
	Stock	From	From	Value
	price	high*	low*	$ bn
First Quantum	CAD 80.85	-19.4%	177.0%	6.153
Katanga Mining**	CAD 0.76	-38.3%	241.3%	1.371
Equinox	CAD 3.31	-29.4%	156.6%	2.213
Metorex	ZAR 3.66	-34.1%	218.3%	0.360
Anvil**	CAD 3.79	-2.1%	356.6%	0.539
Mwana Africa	GBP 0.12	-33.8%	291.7%	0.071
Tiger Resources	AUD 0.25	-21.9%	220.5%	0.091
African Copper	GBP 0.06	-58.9%	810.7%	0.080
Africo**	CAD 0.95	-36.2%	79.2%	0.064
Caledonia	CAD 0.06	-53.8%	20.0%	0.028
African Eagle	GBP 0.04	-72.0%	55.6%	0.016
Geovic***	CAD 0.80	-17.5%	83.9%	0.078
El Nino Ventures	CAD 0.10	-45.7%	90.0%	0.006
* 12-month DRC only * Cameroon