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Pallinghurst to acquire SA manganese
David McKay
Posted: Wed, 19 Dec 2007
[miningmx.com] -- THE Ntsimbintle consortium, which last week took a stake in manganese deposits owned by Samancor, is to vend other manganese-bearing farms into a company that will be 49% owned by Pallinghurst Resources.
Pallinghurst Resources was founded by Brian Gilbertson, formerly of BHP Billiton, as well as business partner Arne Frandsen. It recently withdrew from bidding for Consolidated Minerals, an Australian firm. However, Frandsen said other business plans, including building a 1 million tonne/year manganese mine, remained in place.
Frandsen declined to comment on whether Pallinghurst would do business with Ntsimbintle, which has Saki Macozoma’s Safika as a principal member. “We are interested in manganese. We’ve said this before and hope to become involved in the Kalahari basin,” he said.
About 80% of the world’s manganese deposits are located in the Kalahari
basin. Manganese is used in the manufacture of steel products.
According to market speculation, Ntsimbintle will vend five farms into a company in which it has a 50.1% stake with Pallinghurst owning the balance. There are no plans to take the company public. The first ‘board’ meeting including Safika and Pallinghurst has taken place.
Last week, Samancor unveiled a new company called Hotazel
Manganese Mines (HMM) in which it was a 91% shareholder. The balance is owned by Ntsimbintle which comprises Safika, womens’ empowerment group, Wiphold, and a number of community groupings and trusts.
Samancor, which is owned by BHP Billiton (60%) and Anglo American (40%), has about 90 million tonnes of manganese resources and produces three million tonnes per year of manganese ore and other beneficiated manganese products.
Macozoma was previously head of Transnet, the South African transport utility, which has become an important player in the viability of manganese and other inland mining projects.
Development of South Africa’s manganese resources has become a hot subject after the government controversially awarded prospecting licenses for manganese in the Kalahari district to empowerment firms.
In addition to HHM, there will be future production from Kalagadi Manganese in which ArcelorMittal is to take a 50% stake. The Russian company,
Renova Group, is also looking to develop a manganese mine and smelter complex.
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