Sibanye Gold has at a stroke become one of the world’s major platinum producers, and will take over Anglo American Platinum’s (Amplats’s) Rustenburg mining operations at the start of November in a deal worth at least R4.5bn. SA’s largest domestic gold producer and the world’s largest platinum miner have received approval from the Department of Mineral Resources as the final condition for transferring the ownership of three mines, two concentrating plants, a chrome recovery plant and a tailings project. The deal will make Sibanye the world’s fifth-largest producer of platinum group metals with 1.3-million ounces a year output, leapfrogging Northam Platinum, which is now sixth. Sibanye will pay Amplats R1.5bn up front in cash or shares now that the mineral rights have been transferred by the department. It will then pay Amplats at least R3bn more based on 35% of free cash flows generated from the Rustenburg operations over a six-year period, according to the transaction terms announce...
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