[miningmx.com] – PROPOSALS to restructure and recapitalise Atlatsa
Resources Corporation (Atlatsa), formerly Anooraq Corporation, and its platinum
production and exploration assets held in Bokoni Mines, will not be completed in July
as forecast owing to efforts to Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) to restructure its
business.
In February, Amplats said it would refinance Atlatsa with a radical R5bn plan that
also sees it revamp operational management, and accelerate a 100,000 oz/year
production expansion at Atlatsa’s and Anglo Platinum’s Bokoni Mine.
Amplats said it would also extend its current preference share investment in Atlatsa
by transforming it into a long-term equity investment through to 2019; a step it
hopes will remove uncertainty regarding its commitment to an empowerment deal it
first announced in 2007.
However, Amplats 80% shareholder, Anglo American, said earlier this year a review
of its business, including its investments, would not be complete until the year-end,
a development that will hold up Atlatsa.
Importantly, Atlatsa’s Bokoni mines would not be closed.
“The parties are not contemplating closure of the Bokoni operations, as Bokoni
represents a Tier 1 ore body on the Eastern Limb of the Bushveld Complex,
earmarked for expansion into the future with two significant ramp-up projects
currently in progress,’ Atlatsa said in an announcement on July 26.
