Adelaide, Sept 8, 2006 (ABN Newswire) - Australia's publicly listed mining companies operating in Africa have been urged to consider dual listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) instead of the more conventional Toronto or London AIM markets.

"Let me give a clear message, we have money, and lots of it - money is not a problem," JSE's Senior General Manager, Marketing and Business Development, Mr Noah Greenhill, told an industry conference today.

"Anyone who says you can't raise money in South Africa does not know what they are talking about - any check of our recent construction and mining related listings is clear proof of that.

"We have trillions of rand to invest - and we are keen to create wider opportunities for Africa to invest in a local exchange and in their local mining sector."

Addressing the Paydirt Media 2006 Africa Downunder Conference in Perth today, Mr Greenhill said the Exchange's performance this year had included substantial oversubscriptions for capital raisings, supported by more than 85% by South African investors, equally well supported rights issues and irrevocable commitments to new listings worth more than three billion rand.

"But it is in the area of dual listings that we face the challenge of bringing home to the JSE, those investment actions which see Australian, British, Canadian and other mining companies operating in Africa, taking their listing and capital raising business anywhere else but Johannesburg.

"We opened our doors to foreign companies two years ago to invest via the JSE. It has advantages for institutional investors, and African retail investors whose Exchange investments are currently capped, but have that cap removed if they take shares in dual listed companies.

"And they are eagerly waiting to do so as we are aligned with European standards and our market regulations are among the best in the world.

"Significantly, we also have the ability to monitor transactions right down to individual trading orders. This real time market monitoring is an early detection of any insider trading or market manipulation - and that should appeal to Australian companies conscious of high corporate governance.

"The performance of the JSE has also been one of relatively high liquidity and that should equally appeal to the Australian mining sector and its capital raising requirements," Mr Greenhill said.

>>> Africa DownUnder Conference