JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed Jubilee Platinum has entered into a deal that will see it take full ownership of subsidiary company Pollux, which holds the platinum group metal (PGM) processing rights to the Dilokong chromite mine (DCM) platinum recovery project, in Limpopo.

Jubilee would acquire Emerald Panther Investments 48’s 7.5% interest in Pollux for R3.5-million in shares.

The company last week revealed that it had increased its stake in Pollux to 92.5%, up from the previous 67.5%, by buying out Lipsoset’s shareholding for R10.7-million in shares.

“The company believes, as iterated before, that [its] resultant increase in the DCM platinum recovery project offers tremendous upside value to Jubilee and it is opportune for the company to be able to maximise its beneficial interest in Pollux at this stage of the project.

“It remains the intention to drive this project to production within the near term and to pursue project funding options for the construction and commissioning of the processing plant,” commented Jubilee CEO Leon Coetzer.

The platinum recovery project, which was situated at ASA Metals’ DCM operation, was expected to provide Jubilee access to more than 950 000 t of platinum-containing surface material.

“The project, which focuses on the recovery of PGMs from surface material to produce platinum-containing concentrates, is the next step in Jubilee’s business model targeting continued growth in earnings,” Coetzer had noted last week.

ASA Metals had given its full support for the project and had confirmed the site on its property for the construction of the PGM processing plant.

The allocated site was adjacent to existing water and power infrastructure, which was expected to lower the required capital for the processing plant, originally estimated at $6-million.

Meanwhile, Coetzer on Tuesday said Jubilee had started the trial processing of platinum-containing material at its smelter operations. “These trials form part of Jubilee’s stated strategy of migrating its smelter operations onto platinum-containing material.”