[miningmx.com] — NKWE Platinum’s Managing Director, Maredi Mphahlele,
has played down the company’s unresolved row with African Rainbow Minerals (ARM)
and Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) over tenure, saying the dispute won’t stand
in the way of the company advancing its Garatau project.
Nkwe announced on Thursday that it had been granted mining rights by the
Department of Mineral (DMR) Resources over three of its five properties on the
eastern limb, of which the company’s rightful tenure has been challenged by ARM and
Amplats.
The dispute has been raging since 2006, with the DMR acting as mediator in the
latest attempt to make the parties reach a settlement. The properties are down-dip
from ARM and Amplats’ Modikwa joint venture.
In response to Nkwe’s announcement on the mining rights, ARM said the parties have
been negotiating to reach an out-of-court settlement and that no agreement has
been reached to date.
“ARM and Amplats are willing to continue negotiations with the DMR and other parties
involved in the matter in an attempt to resolve the situation,’ read a company
statement. “The litigation will continue and will include a challenge of the issue of
the mining right by the DMR.’
Mphahlele was unperturbed, however. He said the awarding of the rights confirmed
Nkwe’s legal tenure over the farms, that the company was about to finalise
negotiations with a suitable joint venture partner over the development of the
properties, and that the standoff with ARM and Amplats would not jeopardise Nkwe’s
chances of landing such a partner.
“People will make their own assessment of the risk involved,’ Mphahlele told
Miningmx. “Disputes are part and parcel of the industry and I don’t think this
[ARM and Amplats] will change the development potential of the project.’
The Garatau project, consisting of the farms De Kom and Garatouw, has a total
resource of 23.3 million ounces of platinum group metals. A completed bank feasibility
study estimated monthly production of 300,000 tonnes of ore for 400,000 oz of
platinum group metals production per year. Recoveries of the Merensky reef could be
as high as 90% to 92%, with UG2 at 85% to 87%.
Mphahlele said the company would now seek to acquire skills, as it transforms from
being an explorer to a miner and producer.
MIRACLE UPON MIRACLE
Nkwe would also continue to face legal challenges from a company and community
grouping over the prospecting rights of its other two farms, Eerstegeluk and
Nooitverwacht.
Bengwenyama Minerals succeeded in a Constitutional Court case in 2010 to have the
rights over the two farms set aside. The DMR has subsequently awarded the rights
over Eerstegeluk to the Bengwenyama-Ye-Maswazi community, with Genorah
Resources (Nkwe’s majority shareholder) as the economic partner.
The Bengwenyama community, along with Genorah and Miracle upon Miracle
(controlled by the directors of Bengwenyama Minerals) were jointly awarded the
rights over Nooitverwacht.
Mike Nahon of Bengwenyama Minerals/Miracle upon Miracle told Miningmx the
group has submitted an application to the North Gauteng High Court to have
Genorah’s rights set aside. Genorah/Nkwe is yet to file an answering affidavit.
Asked for comment, Mphahlele said he was confident that Miracle upon Miracle’s
application was without substance.
