Canadian miner Pan American Silver has tossed its hat into the ring to acquire fellow miner Yamana Gold, teaming up with Agnico Eagle Mines in an unsolicited proposal to buy the company that South Africa-based Gold Fields has its eye on.

Pan American Silver and Agnico Eagle on Friday delivered a binding offer to the Yamana board, pursuant to which Pan American would acquire all the issued and outstanding common shares of the company and Yamana would sell certain subsidiaries and partnerships which hold its Canadian assets to Agnico Eagle.

This would include the Canadian Malartic mine, allowing Agnico Eagle to consolidate its ownership in one of the world’s biggest gold mines.

Under the offer, Pan American would acquire all the issued and outstanding common shares for total consideration consisting of $1.0-billion in cash and the issuance of about 153.5-million common shares of Pan American and about 36.1-million common shares of Agnico Eagle.

Shareholders of Yamana would receive $1.0406 in cash, 0.0376 of an Agnico share and 0.1598 of a Pan American share for each Common share held, for an aggregate value of $5.02 a share.

The offer is not subject to any financing condition or additional due diligence.

Yamana said in a statement that the new offer constituted a “superior proposal” in accordance with the terms of the arrangement agreement with Gold Fields. The South Africa-based gold major has five business days to match the offer.

Yamana noted that its board had not changed its recommendation regarding the pending transaction with Gold Fields and that the special meeting of shareholders to consider the Gold Fields arrangement remained scheduled for November 21. The board has unanimously recommended voting in favour of the Gold Fields arrangement.

Some investors have called into question the all-stock takeover by Gold Fields, currently valued at C$6.8-billion. Van Eck Associates, the biggest Yamana investor and the third-biggest shareholder in Gold Fields, is critical of the transaction, according to Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail. Portfolio manager Joe Foster called the deal “poorly structured” and said the market did not understand the strategy behind the deal. Another Gold Fields investor, Redwheel, has also for the transaction to be scrapped.

GOLD FIELDS SAYS ITS DEAL REMAINS SUPERIOR

Gold Fields responded on Friday that it believed its offer was "demonstrably superior" to the joint offer by Pan American and Agnico Eagle.

The complementary nature of Yamana's assets to the Gold Fields portfolio would create "significantly greater near-term and long-term value" for the shareholders of both companies than the new offer.

"It is clear that the Gold Fields offer remains strategically and financially superior to the joint offer with higher quality assets, lower operational and execution risk and higher sustained returns, given Gold Fields enjoys the free cash flow, balance sheet profile and technical capabilities to unlock the full potential of Yamana's assets," the company stated.

Gold Fields also noted that the emergence of another offer indicated that other mining companies were seeing the inherent value in Yamana’s assets.

PRECIOUS METAL MAJOR TO BE BORN

Meanwhile, Pan American said that the Yamana acquisition would establish it as a major precious metals producer in Latin America, with about 28.5-million to 30-million ounces of yearly silver production and about 1.1-million to 1.2-million ounces of yearly gold production.

"The combination of our existing portfolio with Yamana's high-quality assets in Latin America would create a powerful precious metals mining company in the Americas with leading exposure to silver, and represents an exciting opportunity for growth for both Yamana and Pan American shareholders.

“Our established presence and expertise in Latin America will enable us to leverage the synergies and growth potential of Yamana's assets in the region in a way that is highly complementary to Pan American's exis...

Higher grade ore mined by AngloGold Ashanti in the third quarter should have meant more gold at unchanged cost – more bang for the same buck, as it were.

But the current abnormally high level of inflation knocked back the potential benefits of 17% higher underground grades and 21% higher opencast grades year-on-year.

Inflation contributed $996/oz, or 14%, to the total cash cost increase of the Johannesburg- and New York-listed company in the three months to the end of September.

“You can see how damaging inflation is to the world because if we had normal inflation, we would have had an unbelievably spectacular year,” AngloGold CEO Alberto Calderon, a former International Monetary Fund luminary, said in response to questions put to him by Mining Weekly during Thursday’s media roundtable.

The higher grade and increased production did manage to stave off inflation’s full potential impact.

Total cash costs were $966/oz, with the year-on-year increase contained at 4%, or $39/oz, despite inflationary pressure and other noncontrollable factors of $112/oz.

“The cost environment remains dynamic and uncertain, and we continue to expect full year cash costs at the top end of our guidance range,” AngloGold interim CFO Ian Kramer reported.

“Labour markets remain tight. We currently see inflation averaging around 7% next year,” said Kramer in noting that input commodities have trended sharply upwards following the outbreak of the Russia/Ukraine war.

In addition to inflation, total cash costs were impacted by volume variances of $29/oz and activity changes of $42/oz. These upward cost pressures were partly offset by favourable ore stockpile movements of $39/oz and the positive impact of higher grades at $135/oz.

The inflation impact on AngloGold is from the suppliers it buys from but the cash cost increase has been limited to around 4%, based on a more predictable operational performance with higher grades and a significant drop in stockpile.

All-in sustaining costs were down 6% to $1 284/oz, mainly owing to lower sustaining capital expenditure of $103/oz, partly offset by the $39/oz increase in cash costs.

AngloGold’s primary goal is to regain its cost competitiveness compared with its peers.

Its new carbon emissions reduction programme, which is expected to add value to the business by reducing energy cost, is described as being net present value (NPV) positive.

Mining Weekly: To what extent is your carbon emission reduction programme likely to lower your energy costs?

Calderon: When we talk about the overall programme being NPV positive, that is derived precisely from paying less for our energy. Take, for example, our very advanced system in Tanzania, it’s going to be a combination of hydro and gas that will reduce the emissions by a significant amount, I think it’s by 30%, and it will also cost us less. That is typical of being NPV positive. But we are doing this because it’s the right thing to do and it just happens to be NPV positive. At Geita, you will see the benefits next year, at others in 2024 and some only in 2027, 2028.

Co-funding of your $1.1-billion renewable energy projects has lowered your own funding to a manageable $350-million. How is that brought about?

How that works – and this is just standard in the industry – is that a lot of the programmes involve mining companies doing a power purchasing agreement where we commit to buy the energy over a period of time, let’s say ten years, as is happening with us in Australia. Those who provide the service put in the capital, which occurs in about 70% of the cases. What is interesting is that there is a lot of money in the world for these types of projects at, I would say, below market rates. Ian [Kramer] has already started looking for funding that will be below normal loan operation and that’s all factored into the NPV estimates.

ECONOMIC INTERPRETATION

As has been reported earlier this year, AngloGold has appointed Gillian Doran, 45, as its new CFO from January 1.

Doran join...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses Anglo American Platinum's maiden climate change report; Anglo’s green hydrogen truck trials; and consensus that a green electron and green molecule energy transition is tailor-made for South Africa.

The competitive position of gold and copper mining company Barrick is being progressively boosted by exploration, which results in the company replacing the extracted ore with similar quality.

“We’re the only company that has replaced our ounces at the same quality through exploration – through the drill bit – and today we’re a much more competent explorer than we were in 2019,” Barrick CEO Dr Mark Bristow, himself a renowned geologist, enthused in an interview.

“With the exception of eastern Russia, we’ve got geologists in every single global geological province who are capable of delivering copper or gold or both,” Bristow added.

He was speaking to Mining Weekly after the New York- and Toronto-listed gold and copper company remained on track to achieve its 2022 production guidance.

In doing so it overcame some short-term operational challenges and rising input costs, driven largely by what Bristow concedes was a soft production quarter, but one which has paved the way for a stronger final three months, driven by access to higher grades at Nevada Gold Mines.

But overall, it is the exploration drive that is continuing to build momentum and Barrick is set once again to grow its reserves net of depletion this year – but with inflation still a factor needing to be taken into account.

“Inflation is here and you can’t deny it. Many people are wishing it away, just like back in 2008, in the global financial crisis.

“The real impact of the global financial crisis was only really felt in 2011, and that’s when gold went up to $1 900/oz.

“In the medium term, it’s great for gold, and on the copper side, which is the most strategic metal, the market just gets tighter and tighter because, again, the industry has stopped investing in itself just because the copper price is at $3.40/lb.

“The gold industry is stretching a bit because it hasn’t replaced the gold that it has mined with similar quality,” Bristow reiterated.

Helping to keep down costs and mitigating against inflation, too, had been Barrick’s disposal of the noncore assets after its multiple transactions of 2019 and 2020.

A lot of other companies kept everything and took the ride on the high commodity prices, which have since come down amid costs going up, not only driven by inflation and increased input costs, but also lower revenues because of declining grades.

The industry, in Bristow’s view, has spent far too much time rearranging far too few assets amongst too many management teams – “and the problem is that consolidation is even more challenging because there are not enough assets available to build the relevance that this mining industry needs, to be able to participate in a bigger, more developed world.

“So, not only are we dealing with a critical global financial crisis, but it’s materially compounded by the geopolitical mess that we find ourselves in, on a global basis, and then compromised by populist politics and very liberal fiscal doctrine,” he outlined.

THIRD-QUARTER PERFORMANCE

Barrick’s third-quarter operating cash flow for the quarter was $758-million and was supplemented by the sale of noncore royalty assets.

The robust balance sheet supported a $0.10-a-share base dividend plus a $0.05-a-share performance dividend for a total of $0.15 a share for the quarter.

Under the $1-billion share buyback programme, $322-million of shares have been repurchased to date, or about 1% of Barrick’s issued and outstanding shares at the time the programme was announced.

“Barrick’s core strategy is one of long-term value creation and our focus remains firmly on this goal. We continue to maintain a strong balance sheet and to develop our wealth of organic growth projects. We also keep a sharp lookout for M&A opportunities, but those that could pass our strict investment filters are few and far between,” Bristow said.

Barrick’s asset portfolio and pipeline of organic growth prospects is extensive.

Ongoing exploration in Lumwana in Zambia is pointing to the potential for a superpit...

The Northern Cape’s Tshipi Borwa manganese mine is “up there with the best of them”, says new Jupiter Mines CEO Brad Rogers, who has seen his fair share of mine sites around world as the former head of a company with more than 50 mining and industrial sites in Australia and Indonesia.

Rogers has been running ASX-listed Jupiter, a 49.9% investor in Tshipi, since the beginning of August, having joined the company from Bis Industries, Australia’s 140-year-old mining logistics company.

The unlisted empowered mining investment company Ntsimbintle Holdings, headed by chairperson Saki Macozoma, has a 20% shareholding in Jupiter.

Ntsimbintle Mining owns the rest of the shareholding in Tshipi, which is located in the southern part of the manganese-rich Kalahari basin, where South Africa hosts the largest estimated mineral reserves of manganese ore globally and accounts for 74% to 78% of the world’s identified manganese resources.

Formed in 2003 to pursue exploration and mining opportunities emerging in the South African manganese sector, Ntsimbintle scored big with its investment in Tshipi.

Rogers sees his current position as presenting his biggest ever opportunity and believes in a bright future for manganese as sell as Jupiter’s opportunity to play a role that delivers value for its local communities and shareholders.

He is big on environmental social and governance (ESG) principles and is working on a sustainability strategy and report for Jupiter, which takes in the prospect of solar power energy generation for the mine, which was set up with standalone diesel fuel usage.

He sees a number of organic growth opportunities for the operation, which has a rail capacity considerably above its current production output.

Tshipi was constructed with a five million ton per annum loadout station for rail and has been producing in the order of 3.3-milion tons to 3.5-million tons per annum very regularly for the last four years.

“We're on that same run right today, so there's an opportunity to increase our production output. We've got a very long mine life of more than 100 years and so there's the ability to be able to drive organic growth in that regard,” Rogers commented to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

He foresees manganese receiving increasing demand pull through with the growth in electric vehicle (EV) battery demand when manufacturing in general starts to kick off in earnest.

“Manganese into that demand source currently is still at quite low levels. That's going to be a high growth area although off a low starting point, we think, starting in about three years’ time,” said Rogers.

Mining Weekly: Jupiter and Tshipi have been joined at the hip from inception. What is your impression of the operation and of South Africa as a mining investment destination?

Rogers: I'm relatively new at Jupiter. I've been on board since the first of August and it's been great to get here a number of times actually since then, and go on to site. Looking at Tshipi before joining and studying the numbers I was expecting to see a quality operation and that's what I found. The role I had prior to joining Jupiter was running Australia's largest mining logistics company, Bis, a 140-year-old company that was on 50 different mine sites, mostly for larger miners around Australia and also Indonesia, and so I've seen around the world my fair share of mine sites, good and bad, and I would say Tshipi is up there with the best of them. Very well invested. Very good, stable, experienced management team as well, and you can see that in Tshipi’s results, great safety record, which I think is always a good marker for how well the place is run in general, and that's certainly the case with Tshipi. But also very stable production and a low and reducing cost base. Everything I saw in terms of the operation itself really married up with that good impression I had prior to joining.

Tshipi’s net profit was up in the half year to the e...

Active support for the creation of a viable green hydrogen economy in South Africa and globally, along with the firm underpinning of a ‘just energy transition’, are highlighted in the maiden climate change report of Anglo American Platinum.

The report sets out the role the JSE-listed mining and marketing company is playing as a supplier of platinum group metals (PGMs) and base metals fundamental to enabling a cleaner, greener, and more sustainable world with strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials.

The full extent of response to climate change is outlined, including plans to improve energy efficiency and carbon neutrality across operations and ambition to reduce Scope 3 emissions by 50% by 2040.

Also detailed are the structures in place to ensure that climate change is embedded across decision-making processes and the manner in which it fits into the capital allocation framework.

“In line with our strategic priority to be a leader in ESG, we expect that the role we play in helping to create a green future should create significant value for all our stakeholders,” Anglo Platinum CEO Natascha Viljoen states in a release to Mining Weekly.

PGMs are key to the mix of energy solutions that will make global decarbonisation possible.

“The quality of the ore bodies entrusted to us, which are significant resources with long mine lives, and low-cost operations, together with our disciplined capital allocation, positions us well to ensure sustainable production and to assure our customers of the responsible standards we meet.

“Our portfolio remains financially resilient in lower carbon emission pathways, helping us to ensure that future generations will continue to benefit from the metals we produce,” said Viljoen.

The contribution to a ‘just energy transition’ comes in the forms of jobs, community support and the PGMs and base metals produced.

Beyond operations, Anglo Platinum is engaged in market development to broaden the number of PGM applications in emission-free transport and green energy production.

Multi-jurisdiction initiatives are being deployed to promote the adoption of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) for commercial uses, particularly in the UK, Europe, US, China and South Africa.

These initiatives aim to accelerate the uptake of heavy-duty FCEVs by aligning end-user demand locations and specifications with the supply of suitable vehicles, along with access to the requisite hydrogen infrastructure along key freight routes.

Similar multi-jurisdiction initiatives are now underway to increase the uptake of FCEVs for light duty vehicles for commercial and passenger use.

PGM-CONTAINING COMPUTER CHIPS PILOTED

Research and ventures to accelerate the adoption of PGM-containing spintronics and other forms of memory electronics in multiple end uses to encourage low-loss computing applications are continuing to be pursued.

This includes funding research on new semiconductor materials involving platinum, palladium and iridium for memory devices, and the launching of a new software technology venture that simplifies the adoption of hardware using those memory devices.

With the Northwestern University Illinois in the US, new PGM-containing computer chips are being piloted, which will dramatically increase the speed of computing while strongly reducing electricity consumption and increasing battery life. This presents a huge market opportunity given that computer chips are in so many electronic devices.

BATTERY AND STORAGE

Adding PGMs to batteries helps to improve their performance is seen as potentially growing into a huge market opportunity and the development of PGM-enabled lithium batteries, mainly through our investment in Lion Battery Technologies, is continuing to be pursued.Industry capability to create new materials and technologies such as fit-for-purpose additive manufacturing and PGM alloys targeting multiple applications are continuing to be expanded.

CARBON NEUTRAL FEEDSTOCKS

Launched alongside Deep...

The 500 t world-first haulage truck powered by green hydrogen last week underwent fully loaded trialling that included tipping into the crusher at Anglo American Platinum's Mogalakwena platinum group metals (PGMs) mine in Limpopo.

“The trials all went well,” Anglo American group technical director Tony O’Neill told this week’s second 2022 sustainability performance presentation, covered by Mining Weekly.

O'Neill was responding to questions posed by Barclays Investment Bank analyst Ian Rossouw, who requested an update on the nuGen truck’s performance as well as a progress report on the ramp-up of the electrolyser to supply the hydrogen to power the zero-emission truck.

“On the hydrogen side, we’ve been to market on commercials for gas but we also need to explore commercials around going liquid, and we’re currently preparing to go that route, so at this point, there’s no further expansion of the electrolyser, it’s not critical path at this point, but we need to clearly sort out the commercials for supply in the next six months,” said O’Neill.

“The liquid hydrogen investigation is more around range so we take away one of the issues that we have been wrestling with. It’s just the number of refuelling stops over a day, and if you go liquid, then clearly that solves for that. So, going well at this point,” O’Neill added.

For the 600 MW Envusa Energy projects in Southern Africa, which are almost shovel-ready with construction due to begin early next year, Credit Suisse securities research director metals and mining Danielle Chigumira asked for the projects’ financing agreements to be spelt out.

Southern Africa, Anglo has partnered with EDF Renewables (EDFR) to develop 3 GW to 5 GW of clean generation capacity. This is expected to meet Anglo's operational power requirements and support the resilience of local electricity supply systems.

The new jointly owned Envusa Energy, is developing its first phase of more than 600 MW of wind and solar projects, a major step towards its vision of a 3 GW to 5 GW renewable energy ecosystem in the region by 2030.

“These projects are all quite typical of infrastructure energy projects and so will be funded with that usual mix of equity and debt. For infrastructure, energy projects are often around that 20% equity and 80% debt mark,” Anglo FD Stephen Pearce explained.

“We’re still just finalising the power purchase agreement system behind that, which will help determine the funding structures, so work in progress. But our equity contribution will be relatively modest as it works its way through those mathematics. For that first 600 MW, our equity contribution will be well south of $100-million over that next two- to-three year period as those projects get built out.

“The majority of them are in Envusa and one a partnership with EDFR on their renewables in Mogalakwena, so really comfortable how those projects will sit. Arrangements are being finalised and worked on as we speak. There’ll be no major surprises there and will largely be infrastructure funded with community partners and bank counterparties, with largely offtake arrangements for us as the customer,” Pearce added.

CLIMATE CHANGE THE DEFINING CHALLENGE

Anglo CE Duncan Wanblad spelt out that Anglo as an organisation views climate change as “the defining challenge of our time”.

“We are committed to playing our part in working out solutions that help manage the impacts of climate change,” said Wanblad.

The London- and Johannesburg-listed company has a target of reducing its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 30% against a 2016 baseline by 2030, on the way to achieving full carbon neutrality across the whole of the portfolio by 2040.

Wanblad described the creation of Envusa Energy as its next step towards the development of a renewable energy ecosystem in Southern Africa, with the aim of producing clean energy at a rate of 3 GW to 5 GW, enhancing the stability and sustainability of the national grid.

Anglo marketing head Hilton Ingram, who provid...

Decarbonisation, net positive biodiversity, and progress towards assuring all operations against recognised responsible mining standards are addressed in Anglo American’s twice-yearly sustainability performance update, which was presented on Monday.

Recognising that many of the metals and minerals the London- and Johannesburg-listed company produces are critical to the technologies required to decarbonise the world’s energy and transport systems, its commitment to being part of the solution to climate change begins in its own business by meeting emissions reduction and carbon neutrality goals.

“There is growing awareness of the centrality of mining to enabling the energy transition and the contribution we can make to a more sustainable future,” Anglo CEO Duncan Wanblad stated in a release to Mining Weekly.

“All the while, we know we also have a role to play to support host countries and communities in terms of skills, jobs and new fields of economic opportunity that are emerging. This transition must include all of society – it must be ‘just’,” said Wanblad.

As a further commitment to its holistic set of sustainability ambitions, Anglo has put in place its Sustainability Financing Framework in recent months, linking certain of its funding requirements to the stretching sustainability objectives it has set for the business.

“Within that framework we issued our first sustainability-linked bond, including performance targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fresh water abstraction, and to support job creation in host communities – a first of its kind for the mining sector,” he said..

EMISSIONS REDUCTION

In 1918, Anglo set a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030, on its pathway to achieving carbon neutrality across operations by 2040.

On-site energy requirements are the largest source of our operational emissions and the company is progressing towards their abatement.

By 2023, all its South America operations will have 100% renewable electricity supply and, for Southern Africa, it has partnered with EDF Renewables to develop 3 GW to 5 GW of clean generation capacity. This is expected to meet Anglo's operational power requirements and support the resilience of local electricity supply systems.

The company has also set an ambition to reduce Scope 3 emissions by 50% by 2040, including by forming a number of partnerships with major steel customers to work together to unlock clean steelmaking technologies.

BIODIVERSITY

Anglo’s sustainable mining plan commits it to achieving a net positive impact on biodiversity across managed operations.

Completed baseline assessments, define significant biodiversity features to protect and further restore, including key habitats and species and important ecosystems.

Investments are being made into innovative technologies and nature-based solutions to mitigate climate change impacts and water scarcity, and to nurture wildlife habitats, with biodiversity management plans for each site being integrated into life of asset plans.

RESPONSIBLE MINING

The company has been engaging to develop responsible mining standards since 2005. Its sustainable mining plan embraces responsible mining standards for all sites by 2025 and meeting that goal is described as being on track.

It is increasingly finding that its most important customers are those whose own values and aspirations align with its own, with value not only attributed to the physical characteristics of the products sold, but also to the ethical approach and commitments of those who produce them.

“The world we are living in is changing in so many ways, not least in society’s expectations of businesses across many industries.

“ We have set up Anglo American to be resilient, disciplined, opportunistic – and responsible. We have the people, the assets and the capabilities to deliver sustainable returns over the long term. It is incumbent on us to deliver the metals and minerals the world so urgently needs in the cleanest and most ...

South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has increased its shareholding in Mozambique’s Mozal Aluminium to 32.45%.

Prior to this transaction, State-owned IDC held 24% equity in the hydropowered aluminium smelter, which is located 20 km west of Maputo, in Beluluane industrial park.

IDC partnered BHP Billiton, now South32, Mitsubishi and the Mozambican government to establish Mozal in 1998.

Not long after the smelter opened in late 2000, expansion plans were already underway to double its capacity.

Currently, exposure to metals such as aluminium, which important to the world's low carbon future, are attracting investor interest.

Last year, South32 exercised its pre-emptive rights to acquire an additional 8.445%, which has increased its shareholding to 63.7%.

Mozal has grown into one of the largest contributors to Mozambique’s export earnings and its biggest industrial employer, “providing good returns on our investment but most important for us has been the socio-economic development impact of this project on the local people,” IDC CEO TP Nchocho stated in a release to Mining Weekly.

Driving sustainable industrialisation and decarbonisation of energy-intensive industries forms part of IDC’s strategy and its investment in Mozal aligns with this strategy.

To support the development of the downstream aluminium industry in Mozambique, a portion of liquid metal is supplied to Midal Cables, a local company that sells products in the domestic and export markets.

As reported by Mining Weekly in January, South32 is working on options to secure green electricity at Hillside Aluminium smelter in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province.

Hillside has bottom-quartile carbon intensity compared with hydropowered Mozal’s top-quartile position.

Hillside accounts for a high 58% of the Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions of the four aluminium operations that South32 runs owing to its carbon-intensive electricity consumption and is in need of significant greening.

The northern limb of the Bushveld is attracting real exploration interest in the form of Platinum Group Metals, Sylvania Platinum and now Ivanhoe Mines, AmaranthCX director and founder Paul Miller has noted on LinkedIn.

Platinum Group Metals and Ivanhoe are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and Sylvania is a London Aim quoted company.

The northern limb of the Bushveld contains a diverse array of mineralisation that is significantly weighted towards platinum group metals (PGMs).

Mining Weekly can report that Ivanhoe has been granted three new exploration rights that cover a total surface area of 80 km2, next to the company’s Platreef project – a palladium, rhodium, nickel, platinum, copper and gold development project that is 64% owned by Ivanhoe.

In commenting on Miller’s observation, Council of Geoscience’s David Khoza pointed out on LinkedIn that the regional gravity data referred to in the Ivanhoe exploration announcement is freely available on the Council of Geoscience’s new data portal.

In addition, Earthlab CEO Deon du Plessis highlighted the northern limb’s vast exploration and mining potential by disclosing that same zone being developed as an underground mine by the Waterberg PGM Project has now been discovered as having opencast mining potential for Sylvania – and exploration drilling has confirmed that the deposit is open at depth, and mineral resource drilling is continuing.

“If Ivanhoe does as it is used to doing, then we should see just this project start making a material difference to the S&P Capital IQ's exploration budget statistics for South Africa – as a Canadian public company, their budgeted exploration spending is at least likely to be captured in the stats. And Ivanhoe knows how to spend,” Miller stated.

“Ivanhoe also clearly had access to what is described in the announcement as ‘a widely spaced regional ground gravity survey’ before being granted the exploration rights.

“I wonder if they got the data from the Council for Geoscience in terms of its new data policies and its new data portal? If so, then it is doing exactly what it is supposed to do - crowd in private sector exploration investment.

“What is also interesting is that these three companies have all been operating in South Africa for decades, and yet local investors and the JSE have been unable to persuade them to consider a local secondary listing.

“This is worth pondering as the local market should be the natural venue for Bushveld platinum group metals projects,” said Miller, whose view is that Minerals Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe should simply phone each company's chairperson up and ask them to get a fast track, low cost, light touch, secondary listing on the JSE.

“Moral suasion is a legitimate application of political power,” added Miller.

Earthlab senior exploration geologist Natalie Brand expanded on that with these words: “Very good points – secondary listing would be encouraging for other foreign investment. Still so much untapped potential in this area.”

The new exploration rights form a continuous block on the southwest border of Ivanhoe’s existing Platreef mining rights at Turfspruit and Macalacaskop, which together cover 78 km2.

The exploration rights reportedly overlap a significant geophysical gravity anomaly known as the Mokopane Feeder, the centre of which is located approximately 10 km from Platreef’s Shaft 1.

The Mokopane Feeder anomaly is said to be one of the most significant gravity features of the Bushveld Complex. Academic studies based on historical data hypothesised that the anomaly represents a primary feeder zone to the Rustenburg layered suite of the northern limb.

To better understand the conceptual Mokopane Feeder target, Ivanhoe will reportedly commence a detailed high-resolution, airborne-magnetic and gradiometer-gravity survey over the project area, for completion early next year.

As reported by Mining Weekly earlier this week, results from studies carried out on Sylvania's exploratio...