Sam Jonah, entrepreneur extraordinaire
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Jonah unveils platinum ambitions
Brendan Ryan
Posted: Tue, 25 Mar 2008

[miningmx.com] -- MINING entrepreneur Sam Jonah is to focus more of his attention on South Africa through the reverse takeover of JSE-listed DNR Capital which will be used as a vehicle for future mining developments in the country.

Jonah – who has been appointed to the boards of a string of junior mining companies as non-executive director and/or chairman since he left AngloGold Ashanti several years ago – will be become non-executive chairman of DNR Capital.

Jonah Capital CEO John Barton-Bridges said, “the strategic intention is that Sam will cut back on his other non-executive responsibilities to focus on the future of this new company, which he is taking very seriously.”
the current situation presents opportunities for us
Barton-Bridges said DNR Capital’s name would be changed to “something more appropriate for an empowered company operating in the South African mining business” once the reverse takeover was completed, which would take another three months.

He added the initial sector being targeted was platinum - specifically the recovery of platinum through the treatment of tailings dumps – but developments in other mining sectors were also likely.

“It’s a little too early to articulate our strategy in detail so I guess what we are saying at this point is: watch this space.”

Barton-Bridges added; “there’s no question but that the investment environment in South Africa is hugely challenging at the moment and there is a lot of negative investor sentiment about the country.

“But this country has a long history of facing enormous challenges and overcoming them. We are taking a long-term view and we believe the current situation presents opportunities for us.”

Terms of the deal are that Jonah Mining and Abalengani Equities will acquire 43% and 25% respectively of DNR Capital through “vending in” to DNR certain mining companies which control 83,6% of Kilken Platinum.

Kilken owns 70% and is the “primary operating partner” in a platinum tailings joint venture where the other 30% is owned by Imbani Minerals.

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The platinum JV buys tailings from Anglo Platinum’s Amandelbult mine, processes them and sells the concentrates containing platinum group metals back to Anglo Platinum. The agreement will run for at least 50 years.

Abalengani consists of a black-owned group of companies head by Zunaid Moti who will become non-executive deputy chairman of DNR.

The two partners hold options to sell further stakes in this operation to DNR which would take their combined holding in the company to above 80%.

Asked about the JSE’s likely reaction to this move, which would limit the tradeability of DNR shares, Barton-Bridges said; “the intention is not to have a tightly-held stock because the company will be used as a vehicle for further developments going forward and will issue stock for new acquisitions.”

He said DNR saw further potential in the specific area of recovering platinum from tailings dumps which is a business already being targeted by Australian junior Sylvania Resources.

“We are not planning to develop any new platinum mines,” he added.

In the run-up to this latest deal Jonah Capital – which together with Jonah Mining forms the “Jonah Group” - announced on March 11 that it had reduced its stake in Sentula Mining (formerly Scharrig Mining).

Stated reason was that Jonah Capital wanted to “fund other strategic mining projects.”

Excluded from inclusion in DNR at this stage are the Jonah Group’s coal assets which include its 50% stake in the JV with Sentula which, in turn, holds a stake in Asenjo Energy which has various coal projects in Botswana.

"At this stage it was decided it would not be appropriate to include the coal assets but that may change in the future,” Barton-Bridges said.