JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – LSE- and Nasdaq-listed Afarak Group will, through its South African subsidiary Afarak Mining Limited, acquire a 70% interest in Zeerust Chrome Mine (ZCM) from Afrika Mineral Trading & Investment Trust, for R20-million.
The remaining 30% interest in ZCM will be allocated to workers, the community and other black economic empowerment partners.
“This acquisition further bolsters our position as a leading specialty alloys producer. Afarak specifically targeted ZCM due to the unique quality of its chrome ore.
“By leveraging our in-house technical expertise and controlling our own production of ZCM’s high-quality ore, we are now in the position to make Mogale the only South African smelter capable of producing high carbon ferrochrome, further differentiating our product range and increasing the contribution of higher yielding specialty alloys in our production output,” says Afarak CEO Guy Konsbruck.
ZCM has an opencast ore resource of about two-million tonnes, with further potential available in the 1.2-million-tonne tailings dump.
Afarak has expertise in shaking table technology, which it already employs in its mining operations in South Africa and Turkey, allowing it to produce significant quantities of concentrate at a comparatively low cost from the tailings.
In addition to the mine, the assets to be acquired include an existing 15 000 t/m processing plant, 900 ha of farm land and 20 houses.