SOUTHERN Palladium has appointed economist and well known mining figure Roger Baxter as the exploration firm’s executive chairman.
Baxter was previously non-executive chair of Southern Palladium and before that the CEO of the Minerals Council for nine years where he played an important role calling out the misdeeds of former South African president Jacob Zuma’s administration.
His appointment at Southern Palladium comes ahead of the publication this month of a prefeasbility study into Bengwenyama, a platinum group metal (PGM) project. Baxter will need all his persuasive skills at the ready given palladium, one of the PGM metals, has fallen 51% in price in the last three years.
Baxter said he will focus on investor and government relations while Southern Palladium MD, Johan Odendaal will cover the “the more technical aspects of advancing the company’s 70% interest in the pre-development” of Bengwenyama.
In this new role, Baxter will also spearhead Southern Palladium’s first North American roadshow at a time when the Biden Administration has upped the ante on critical mineral investment.
In September, a coalition of 14 nations and the European Commission gathered in New York to launch the Minerals Security Partnership aimed at supporting critical minerals projects globally. The partnership is aimed at breaking the chokehold China has over the production of minerals such as nickel, lithium and manganese.
Southern Palladium said in June it had completed a total of 82 drill holes of UG2 Reef of Bengwenyama which is estimated to have a weighted average 7E (seven metals or elements) grade of 9.88 grams per ton over a width of 67 centimetres.
These results “consistently confirmed the initial inferred mineral resource grades and prill split (of metals to each other) – thus confirming the robustness of the UG2 Reef and the broader project,” said Odendaal at the time.
Said Baxter: “I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with Johan and I strongly believe that our skill sets complement each other and that, along with the Bengwenyama community, we will advance the Bengwenyama Project for the benefit of all stakeholders”.
In February Southern Palladium published details of a scoping study into Bengwenyama in which it estimated a post tax net present value of $700m assuming “conservative” metal prices.
The assumption is for an average palladium price of $1,200 per ounce for platinum, a palladium price of $1,100/oz, and $5,000/oz for rhodium. The spot prices for the metals are currently below these levels.
The capital cost of Bengwenyama was forecast to be $408m, including contingencies.
Shares in the company were unchanged on the news of Baxter’s appointment, but have fallen 30% year-to-date.
