However, there was no firm intention or timeline, RBH Mpueleng Pooe told Mining Weekly last week.

In a speech in Johannesburg, he mentioned that the company, the largest single shareholder in Impala Platinum, was considering listings.

Interviewed afterwards, Pooe said that the parent company was not looking to list itself, but rather certain units.

“The horizon is mid- to long term,” he stated.

“[We are] taking our investment portfolio, seeing which of it we can list separately, and seeing if we can build up sufficient critical mass to turn that particular part of the portfolio into a listable entity,” said Pooe.

“It would obviously depend on us building up these platforms to a point where we have something listable, and then relooking at some of our resource assets to see if there are any potential listings.”

In the resources sector, RBH owned 13,4% of Impala, 29,4% of ferrochrome producer Merafe Resources, and 65% of coal-miner South African Coal Mining Holdings. All of these companies were already quoted on the JSE.

It also had a 50:50 joint venture with world number one plati- num producer Anglo Platinum in the Bafokeng Rasimone mine, near the Sun City resort.

Asked what assets the company might look at listing, Pooe replied: “Our stake in BRPM, perhaps – something could happen there.”

He said that the preferred stock exchange for a possible listing would be the JSE.

“We are not working towards any particular timelines here; we are constantly looking at how we can unlock more value,” stated Pooe.

The Bafokeng Rasimone mine, which yielded 96 500 equivalent refined platinum ounces in 2007, had the potential to produce more than 500 000 oz/y of platinum when the Styldrift project expansion project reached steady-state levels, RBH’s website said.

The feasibility study on the Styldrift project was scheduled for completion mid-2008, with a decision expected in the third quarter of this year.

Angloplat spokesperson Simon Tebele could not immediately comment on the possible listing of Bafokeng Rasimone when Mining Weekly phoned him.

Africa’s biggest cellular provider, Vodacom, recently said that RBH would buy a 1,97% stake in the company, as part of its R7,5-bil-lion black economic-empowerment transaction.

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