ON THE SPOT
Neal Froneman cuts a new deal despite his concern about SA’s mining environment
Gold, platinum, palladium and now mine dumps — serial deal maker Neal Froneman’s latest deal will shift its West Rand tailings into the specialist miner of such assets, DRDGold, in return for a 38% stake. You have been outspokenly circumspect about the country’s mining environment, so why the new deal? The vending-in of these assets means that the capital that is raised is not raised directly off our balance sheet or our equity lines. What really excites me is more about the potential to take another proudly-SA company and influence its growth internationally: there is a good set of skills and that’s an area where we have developed some knowledge. But there is some nervousness that DRD might not be able to stump up the cash and will call upon Sibanye to help out. Is that a possibility? It’s very unlikely and all I can say is that under the current investor-unfriendly environment in SA, we wouldn’t do it, we just would not do it. We need clarity on the regulatory environment before w...
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