Northam Platinum CEO Paul Dunne
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – JSE-listed Northam Platinum has acquired the Eland platinum mine from Glencore Operations South Africa for R175-million.
It has also concluded an exclusive chrome marketing agreement with Glencore International, which will market and sell chrome produced at Northam’s Zondereinde and Booysendal operations.
“The Eland transaction provides Northam with a medium-term option over a large, shallow resource with fully developed surface infrastructure. Northam will also be acquiring a sizeable mining fleet, a portion of which will be used at the Booysendal South operation,” Northam CEO Paul Dunne said on Friday.
The sale includes the acquisition of Eland’s two mining rights with a resource estimated at 21.3-million ounces of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold with an average in situ grade of 4.4 g/t, as well as surface and underground infrastructure.
The transaction also includes the acquisition of a chrome spiral recovery plant; a tailings storage facility with a capacity of 100-million tons; two decline systems; and surface support infrastructure designed for a 250 000 t/m operation.