[miningmx.com] — BILLIONAIRE mining entrepreneur Robert Friedland is said to be preparing to list IvanPlats, finally.
The company comprises primarily of platinum assets in South Africa and a copper/silver deposit in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). “He was trying to get the listing away in January, but it’s probably too late for that,” said a UK-based source, who added that the listing was imminent, probably in North America.
It’s worth remembering, however, that Friedland has twice promised to go public on his plans for the assets, especially the South African Platreef project, and has twice disappointed the market eager to hear his next venture.
The first time was in 2006 when he promised to speak about the project at the Investing in African Mining Indaba conference, held annually in Cape Town. As Miningmx reported last year, Friedland took the podium but gave an alternate presentation.
On the second occasion, at last year’s Mining Indaba conference, Friedland again demurred, but said he hoped to provide more details in 2012. “The details will be opening soon at a theatre near you and I don’t have very much more to say about it now, but I look forward to coming back next year with more details,” he said at the time.
There are some hints this time that Friedland will go public. Firstly, Friedland took a low profile after losing a fight with Rio Tinto regarding the takeover of the $16bn Ivanhoe Mines, which owns the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold project in Mongolia, and now has the option of seizing control. Normally, Friedland would have issued a robust public statement; by opting to go to ground, market watchers suggest Friedland does not want to prejudice his next venture, IvanPlats.
Secondly, the investment by Japanese group, ITOCHU Corporation, one of Japan’s leading general trading companies, in Platreef during June for some $280m now sets an indicative price of about $3.5bn on the project.
It’s thought that Friedland would like to sell a similar price-setting stake in IvanPlats’ DRC project, the Kamoa copper and silver project, possibly to Chinese investors, a UK source told Miningmx.
Platreef is situated on the northern limb of the Bushveld Complex extending north from the town of Mokopane, formerly known as Potgietersrus. It is thought to be fairly low grading platinum, but has significant base metals by-products, nickel in particular.
Friedland is arguably one of the the world’s most famous mining entrepreneurs, and is best known for the discovery of the Voisey’s Bay nickel deposit in Canada which he sold for $3.1bn to Inco in the late 1990s.
One of the factors that may deter development of Platreef is the low ratings applied to platinum group metal companies in South Africa currently, which were among the worst performing stocks in 2010.
