JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Ferrochrome company head Steve Phiri is stepping down as CEO of Merafe to take over the reins of a new growth-poised JSE-bound platinum company that is expected to be listed in the second half of 2010.

Long-standing Merafe CFO Stuart Elliot will take over as CEO of the ferrochrome company from April 1 and Phiri will remain on the Merafe board as a nonexecutive director.

The brand identity of the company that Phiri will head as CEO, also from April 1, is still being kept under wraps and referred to only as NewCo, a Royal Bafokeng Holdings- (RBH-) controlled company, which has been operating the Bafokeng Rasimone platinum mine and taking charge of the development of the large adjacent Styldrift platinum project since January.

"We're hoping to list in the second half of 2010," RBH CEO Niall Carroll tells Mining Weekly Online of NewCo.

Phiri will lead NewCo's already-in-place management team of COO Nico Muller, who formerly ran the Two Rivers platinum project for Impala Platinum and African Rainbow Minerals; CFO Martin Prinsloo, formerly of Anglo Platinum; and business sustainability director Mzila Mthenjane, a mining engineer formerly with Gold Fields and RMB.

Bafokeng Rasimone produces 180 000 platinum ounces a year and includes the R2,4-billion Merensky Phase II project, as well as the 200 000 platinum ounces-a-year R8,1-billion adjacent Styldrift project.

NewCo took over the operational management of Bafokeng Rasimone from Anglo Platinum, which had been running the joint venture since 2002.

The Bafokeng Rasimone mine has a considerably shorter life-of-mine than the 50-year Styldrift, which is a 70-million ounce platinum resource: "It's a huge project," Carroll confirms to Mining Weekly Online.

Civil works have begun at the initially two-shaft Styldrift, which may well have another three to four shafts over the course of its life-of-mine.

Royal Bafokeng Resources holds 67% of the platinum assets, from the previous 50% joint control with Anglo Platinum, which is maintaining a minority interest.