Afplat clears BEE hurdle
Posted 07 December 2006

African Platinum, which is planning to build its first platinum mine next door to Lonmin's flagship operations, has concluded its empowerment transaction over the property, describing it as one of the last hurdles before getting mining rights from government.

"With the submission of this document, we believe that we are very close to securing the mining right that will enable Afplats to commence the development of the Leeuwkop Project," said chief executive, Roy Pitchford in a statement on Wednesday.

The definitive agreement on the Leeuwkop project will see the Bakwena Ba-Mogopa (Bakwena) traditional community taking a 26 percent unencumbered shareholding in the Leeuwkop project area.   The 26 percent relates to the minimum black empowerment ownership level required by 2014, under the country's mineral legislation.

In return for increasing its shareholding from 50 percent to 74 percent, Afplats will provide the first R1-billion of development capital for the Leeuwkop project and will also pay the Bakwena an amount of R7.5-million per year for eight years from the granting of the mining right.   Afplats plans to build a 300 000oz underground platinum group metal project at Leeuwkop as part of phase one of the project, with potential to triple this in coming years.

gareth tredway, 6 December 2006