MINING
Implats aims to channel Zimplats windfall to mines
Impala Platinum (Implats) is fully focused on returning its Rustenburg mines to profit, diverting all its cash resources to these efforts, and it is unlikely to use any windfall from its 87%-held Zimplats subsidiary to pay dividends to shareholders. Asked about the maiden R850m dividend payment Implats will receive from Zimplats, the largest platinum group metals miner in Zimbabwe, CEO Nico Muller said it would send the wrong message to investors for Implats to start paying dividends now. The cash from Zimplats has not featured in Implats’s thinking and budgeting for the restructuring process, the completion of two new mines in the Rustenburg area or the studies into building a mine in the Waterberg, so it comes as a welcome sweetener, said Muller.
"I think the market will give us a rerating if they have confidence in [the] balance sheet and our ability to fund the restructuring. Once we’ve negotiated the strategic plan, the expectation for dividends will develop at that point...
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