JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Manganese miner Tshipi é Ntle Manganese Mining will distribute R1-billion to its shareholders for the financial year ending February 28, 2017, provided there are no material changes to the company’s guided production and the manganese market in general for the remainder of the financial year.
Jupiter Mines, which owns a 49.9% interest in Tshipi é Ntle will, accordingly, distribute $55-million to its shareholders.
This will most likely be in the form of an equal access share buyback, payable as cash in March 2017.
“When we took the decision to delist Jupiter in January 2014, I appealed to shareholders to remain invested as we entered the value optimisation phase, so to realise significantly greater value than was reflected in the then share price. With the mine now well established and the manganese market robust, shareholder patience is being rewarded,” Jupiter chairperson Brian Gilbertson said.
Tshipi é Ntle owns and operates the Tshipi Borwa project, in the Northern Cape, which has a 3.6-million-tonne-a-year production capacity.