JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Precious metals miner Sibanye on Monday announced “overwhelming” support for its $1-billion rights offer, which closed on June 9.
The proceeds of the rights offer will be used to partly refinance the $2.65-billion bridge loan facility Sibanye entered into to acquire US-based platinum miner Stillwater Mining Company (SMC).
“This is a substantial vote of confidence in the company and the Stillwater transaction,” Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman said in a statement.
About 97% of shareholders subscribed for 1.2-billion new Sibanye shares in terms of the rights offer, resulting in 36-million rights offer shares available for excess applications.
Excess applications were received for an additional 5.9-billion new shares.
Sibanye entered into a definitive agreement to acquire all the outstanding common stock of SMC for $2.2-billion in December last year, with the transaction concluded in May.
SMC provides Sibanye, which has gold and platinum operations in South Africa, with a mine-to-market platinum group metals (PGMs) business in the US that has a metallurgical processing plant, a PGMs recycling operation and the near-term Blitz growth project.
Development of the Blitz project is expected to be completed in early 2018 and to ramp up to full production of between 270 000 oz and 330 000 oz of two-element PGMs by 2021/22, with lower cash cost an ounce than at SMC’s existing Stillwater and East Boulder mines.