Exxaro CEO Sipho Nkosi
Photo by: Duane Daws
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Diversified mining giant Exxaro Resources has denied media reports claiming the major is looking to diversify into platinum-group metals (PGMs) and is investigating the possible purchase of assets that Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) has signalled it might divest.
Responding to a Reuters article published on Thursday, Exxaro said in a statement that the group was neither in discussions with Amplats management on any potential acquisition of their PGM assets nor was it assessing the acquisition of Amplats assets, as suggested by the article’s headline.
“Exxaro is focused on managing its existing operations as well as completing and delivering on its pipeline of projects on hand, including the R10-billion Grootegeluk Medupi expansion project in the Waterberg.
“As with large companies in any industry, Exxaro is continuously monitoring potential opportunities, as indicated in the body of the article, but has no plans to enter the PGM space in the medium term,” commented Exxaro CEO Sipho Nkosi.
The Reuters article quoted Exxaro executive head of strategy Mzila Mthenjane as saying at the Reuters Africa Investment Summit on Wednesday that the group had “scouted around in PGMs and thought there were some interesting opportunities emerging”.
“It's across the whole board, from existing single assets that are being developed to potentially what could fall out, with some of the restructurings that are being spoken about," he was quoted as saying with regard to Exxaro’s apparent interest in Amplats’ assets.
Reuters stated that a “drastic” post-strike overhaul was looking certain for the industry and Amplats had signalled it could divest some of its loss-making platinum assets, including its strike-hit Rustenburg operations, north-west of Johannesburg.