Community Requests 30-percent Mine Stakes from Amplats

Mineweb reported that a community near South African mines operated by Anglo American Platinum Ltd. (JSE:AMS) has asked the firm for 30-percent stakes in its Union mine and three Rustenburg operations.

As quoted in the market news:

The Bakgatla Ba Kgafela community, which owns 15% of Union, held talks with its preferred bidder for the four mines about taking a shareholding in the operations as a black economic-empowerment partner, Kgosi Nyalala Pilane, chief of the community, said in an interview in northern South Africa on Tuesday. Pilane didn’t want to identify the bidder because Amplats, as the Johannesburg-based company is known, may choose a different buyer for the mines.

Amplats is selling the four deep-level, labour-intensive platinum mines as it seeks to prioritize capital for expanding the mechanized Mogalakwena pit. Its decision came after a five- month strike last year idled most of the mines owned by Amplats, Impala Platinum Holdings and Lonmin.

Click here for the full Mineweb report