Palabora

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Palabora Mining Company Limited
Founded1956  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Key people
Guangmin Wei (chief executive officer)
Palabora copper mine
Palabora-Open-Pit-Mine-2019.jpg
Open pit mine outside Phalaborwa
Location
Location Phalaborwa
Province Limpopo
CountryFlag of South Africa.svg  South Africa
Production
ProductsCopper
vermiculite
anode slimes
nickel sulfate
sulfuric acid
magnetite
History
Opened1956

Palabora Mining Company Limited (founded August 1956) is a publicly traded mining company headquartered in Phalaborwa, Limpopo province, South Africa. The company operates a single cluster of open-pit and underground mines producing mainly copper as well as byproducts such as precious metals from anode slimes, nickel sulfate, sulfuric acid, magnetite, and vermiculite. Palabora also has processing facilities on site for the production of purified copper from mined copper ore, and a vermiculite recovery plant. Its final copper product has two forms namely, copper cathode and copper rod. [1]

Contents

In addition to its mining activities, Palabora maintains subsidiaries located in the United States, United Kingdom and Singapore for the marketing of vermiculite. [1]

History

Until 2013, Rio Tinto owned 57.7 per cent of Palabora and Anglo American owned 16.8 per cent. [2] In September 2011, both companies announced that they planned to sell their stakes because its copper operation was "no longer of a sufficient scale." [3] [4] In December 2012, they reached a pre-sale agreement to sell their collective 74.5 per cent interest at R110 per share in a deal that valued Palabora at R5.31 billion. The purchasing consortium was led by a Chinese state-owned entity, the Hebei Iron and Steel Group (35 per cent of the consortium); it also comprised the state-owned South African Industrial Development Corporation (20 per cent), General Nice Development (25 per cent), and Tewoo Group (20 per cent). [5] [6]

Palabora mine

The Palabora mine was an open-pit operation until 2002, when the pit reached its final economic depth. Mining subsequently began in an underground mine which was constructed between 2001 and 2004. [7] [8] It is the only producing copper mine operating in South Africa, as well as the largest employer in Ba-Phalaborwa. [9]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Palabora Mining Company". Palabora Mining Company. 2005. Retrieved 14 April 2009.
  2. "Rio, Anglo to sell stakes in Palabora Mining". The Mail & Guardian. 5 September 2011. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
  3. "Rio Tinto and Anglo American to sell £447m stake in South Africa's Palabora Mining". The Telegraph. 5 September 2011. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
  4. Ryan, Brendan (5 September 2011). "Rio Tinto to sell out of Palabora". Miningmx. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
  5. "Rio Tinto and Anglo sell Palabora to Chinese group". MINING.COM. 11 December 2012. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
  6. "Hebei Group to Buy Rio's Palabora Mining for $476 Million". Bloomberg.com. 12 December 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
  7. Nyarela, M. S.; Khumalo, R. B.; Nemathithi, R. C. (2022). "Drawpoint loading optimization strategies in block caving: A case study of Palabora Mining Company". Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. 122 (11): 639–646. doi:10.17159/2411-9717/1664/2022. ISSN   2225-6253.
  8. "Palabora Copper Mine, Palabora, South Africa". Mining Technology. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
  9. Cornish, Laura (12 February 2020). "History repeats itself at Palabora copper mine in South Africa". Mining Review. Retrieved 24 December 2024.