COMPANY COMMENT
A lot went wrong with Lonmin, but there was also some good
Lonmin has been doing a lot in the background to kickstart small businesses — Sibanye would do well not to discard these innovative projects
A lot went wrong at Lonmin, the world’s third-largest platinum miner, until Monday when it was fully taken over by Sibanye-Stillwater.
The near unanimous vote in favour of the takeover by those invested in Lonmin attending a special meeting to decide on the transaction was the clearest indication that the company had hit the wall.There were no further options open to it barring splitting the company into its constituent parts, with few logical potential owners outside Sibanye as the owners of the assets.Sibanye has wrapped up a vast swathe of the western limb of the Bushveld Igneous Complex, the world’s largest-known platinum group metals (PGMs) deposit and by adding Lonmin’s assets, most importantly the smelting and refining operations, the group has carved out a powerful position in the global PGM market in just three years from scratch. Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum, Northam and others must be relieved there’s a new player in town that is better able to withstand...
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