[miningmx.com] – SHORTCOMINGS related to black economic empowerment (BEE) sank Aquarius Platinum’s proposed $37m sale of its Blue Ridge and Sheba’s Ridge platinum assets to a Chinese consortium.
Aquarius Platinum announced on October 15 that it had extended the proposed sale of the assets to a consortium led by China National Arts & Crafts Corporation on nine occasions, but that it failed to win the approval from the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).
As a result, the consortium terminated the transaction, first announced in January, which deals a blow to Aquarius Platinum’s attempts to grow its business and further de-leverage its balance sheet.
The DMR said in a statement that while it wanted to attract investment in the mining sector it had advised Aquarius and the Chinese consortium of problems related to the BEE in the transaction. It did not provide further details.
“The DMR is always accommodative and also advised the applicants of the identified shortcomings, particularly with regard to the BEE requirements,” the DMR said.
“It would appear that this crucial information might have not been well communicated to the Chinese investors and the situation was made to look as if the DMR was delaying the situation, which is not the case,” it said.
“The DMR will be engaging with all parties with a view of finding a solution to this matter,” it concluded.
A portion of the proceeds from the asset sales would have been channeled towards helping Aquarius Platinum finance three projects of which the largest was the $70m expansion of Aquarius’ Mimosa platinum mine in Zimbabwe by 70,000 PGM ounces.
