JOHANNESBURG – South Africa's Impala Platinum (Implats) is seeking tenders to build a tailings or waste storage facility at its Marula mine in a positive sign for a site recovering from community protests that sent its shares higher.
The company posted an advertisement on Friday in the local Mail & Guardian newspaper seeking tenders for the project. Bidders are required to "use 100% unskilled local labour" and "maximise the use of local subcontractors".
Implats' shares were up more than 4% by mid-morning trade in Johannesburg.
Marula is located on the eastern limb of South Africa's platinum belt, where social strife rooted in poverty and joblessness has prompted more than 400 incidents that have disrupted mine operations since 2016.
Implats said last month that Marula was rebounding strongly and ramping up production and is one of the company's few assets in South Africa that is not losing money.
Marula was on the brink of closing last year after a nearby chrome project Implats had set up with a tribal council collapsed, triggering protests from local residents excluded from its revenue flows - part of a wider pattern of such deals coming unstuck and fanning unrest.