Cash-strapped Lonmin plans sales and partnerships
Shareholders are tapped out, so the platinum miner is looking at partnerships in some operations, and sales of excess refining capacity
Lonmin will sell or seek partners for its Limpopo and Akanani projects, sell excess capacity in its smelting and refining business, and bring funding partners into its K4 and Rowland mines as the company continues to battle with the difficult economics besetting the platinum industry. Lonmin, which has exhausted the capacity of its shareholders for injecting capital into the business, has undertaken a business review despite having just come through a process to shut unprofitable mines and cut thousands of jobs. "The operational review is focused on optimising the cash produced by the business, both from its operations and through releasing capital from those activities where the company is currently bearing the cost of excess capacity and unrealised development potential," Lonmin said. Lonmin will sell processing capacity of 500,000oz that it is not using at its plants as the company scaled back production to 650,000oz-680,000oz of platinum this year as it shut old mines and cut jo...
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