COMPANY COMMENT: Little platinum metals engine that could
Eland is a feather in the cap of Northam, a small platinum miner with big ambitions
One number that is easily and often associated with Northam CEO Paul Dunne is his setting, soon after taking the job, of an "aspirational" output target of 1-million ounces of platinum group metals (PGMs) a year, coming off the company’s base of its deep-level Zondereinde mine and its new Booysendal mine.Credit to Dunne and his team, who are just as prolific and wily when it comes to striking a deal as are their gold — and now platinum — counterparts at Sibanye Gold under CEO Neal Froneman. Northam’s strategy is to find large, shallow deposits conducive to mechanised mining. It has delivered admirably on that strategy, helped by a R4bn cash injection from an empowerment deal, giving it the war chest to respond to opportunities. It has bought Everest South from Aquarius Platinum for R450m, giving it the infrastructure in the southern portion of Booysendal to unlock resources there. And it has done a deal with Anglo American Platinum at Amandelbult to acquire more resources and secure...
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