Amplats cuts Royal Bafokeng interest
Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) sold the majority of its 11% stake in its mining partner Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat) for R390m to fund its share of the Maseve concentrator purchase as well as capital expenditure on the new Styldrift mine.
RBPlat launched a smart takeover bid for the 110,000 tonnes-per-month concentrator as well as the underground workings of the Maseve project after they were idled by Canada’s Platinum Group Metals, which had run into financial difficulties.
RBPlat and Amplats, the world’s largest platinum miner, are jointly developing the Styldrift mine, which is close to Maseve.
The strategy of buying a ready-built concentrator for a fraction of what it would cost to build, and without the risk of commissioning a new plant, is a major coup for the Styldrift project. RBPlat, which made the $58m purchase of the concentrator and then the $12m allshare purchase of the mothballed underground workings, said it would vend it into the partnership with Amplats that owns Styldrift.
Amplats, which owns a 33% stake in Styldrift, agreed to pay R233m towards the concentrator purchase for the venture.
To raise the money, Amplats sold 17.32-million of the shares it held in RBPlat, realising R22.50 per share in an accelerated placing and securing R390m.
Amplats’s stake in RBPlat has fallen to 2.6% from 11%.
The company has agreed to hold its remaining RBPlat shares for at least 90 days.
Styldrift’s production will be treated at the Maseve concentrator — which for a cost of R450m can be expanded to 160,000 tonnes a month and fed via a conveyor belt system — as well as the RBPlat and Amplats joint venture’s Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum Mine concentrator to the south.
Maseve, Styldrift and Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum Mine all share boundaries and are immediately south of Sun City in North West.
The cost of building a new 100,000 tonnes-a-month concentrator would be about R1.6bn and Styldrift would have to stockpile about R1bn worth of ore ahead of the plant during the 18-month construction period to commission and then feed the concentrator.
Assuming the Maseve concentrator’s capacity is expanded and combined with the Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum Mine concentrating capacity, there would be spare capacity of about 40,000 tonnes a month.