Wesizwe Platinum

Last updated
Wesizwe Platinum
Industry Mining
Website www.wesizwe.co.za

Wesizwe Platinum is a mining business in South Africa. It has significant platinum group metal deposit on the Bushveld Igneous Complex. [1] [2] [3] [4]

South Africa Republic in the southernmost part of Africa

South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) of coastline of Southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini (Swaziland); and it surrounds the enclaved country of Lesotho. South Africa is the largest country in Southern Africa and the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and, with over 57 million people, is the world's 24th-most populous nation. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different African languages, nine of which have official status. The remaining population consists of Africa's largest communities of European (White), Asian (Indian), and multiracial (Coloured) ancestry.

Contents

Frischgewaagd-Ledig

Wesizwe has access to substantial platinum reserves at the Bakubung platinum mine site near Rustenburg in the Western limb of the Bushveld Igneous Complex. [5] It is expected to produce 350,000 ounces of Platinum group metals per year. [6]

Rustenburg Place in North West, South Africa

Rustenburg City is a city at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range. Rustenburg is located in the North West Province of South Africa. It was one of the official host cities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, being in close proximity to Phokeng, the capital of the Royal Bafokeng Nation, where the Royal Bafokeng Stadium is located. The England national football team also used this as their base camp for the tournament.

Bushveld Igneous Complex mountain range

The Bushveld Igneous Complex (BIC) is the largest layered igneous intrusion within the Earth's crust. It has been tilted and eroded forming the outcrops around what appears to be the edge of a great geological basin: the Transvaal Basin. It is approximately 2 billion years old and is divided into four different limbs: the northern, southern, eastern, and western limbs. The Bushveld Complex comprises the Rustenburg Layered suite, the Lebowa Granites and the Rooiberg Felsics, that are overlain by the Karoo sediments. The site was first discovered around 1897 by Gustaaf Molengraaff.

In May 2011, a financing deal worth nearly $1bn was agreed with a consortium of Chinese investors; [7] [8] Wesizwe now has the Jinchuan Group and CADFund as its major shareholders. [9] This deal would allow work to start on platinum production at the Bakubung Platinum Mine. [10] [11]

Jinchuan Group Ltd. is a Chinese company based in Gansu. It produces the metals nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum, palladium, gold, silver and selenium. As of 2007 it has the capacity to produce 150,000 metric tons of refined nickel per year, producing 90% of China's output, and is the largest nickel producer in Asia. It produces 400,000 tons of copper per year, the fourth largest in China. The company reported that it would make a profit of 10 billion yuan in 2007 compared with 7.2 billion yuan in 2006, with sales of 50 billion yuan.

In January 2013, Wesizwe Platinum confirmed that it had received a $650 million loan from the China Development Bank for the development of the Bakubung project. Part of the loan would be used to refund two separate $100-million short-term loans, which CDB and Wesizwe signed in December 2012. [12]

The China Development Bank (CDB) is a financial institution in the People's Republic of China (PRC), led by a cabinet minister at the Governor level, under the direct jurisdiction of the State Council. As one of three policy banks in China, it is responsible for raising funds for large-scale infrastructure projects, including the Three Gorges Dam and the Shanghai Pudong International Airport. Established by the Policy Banks Law of 1994, the bank is described as the engine that powers the national government’s economic development policies.

Related Research Articles

The platinum-group metals are six noble, precious metallic elements clustered together in the periodic table. These elements are all transition metals in the d-block.

Chromite spinel, oxide mineral

Chromite is a mineral that is an iron chromium oxide. It has a chemical formula of FeCr2O4. It is an oxide mineral belonging to the spinel group. The element magnesium can substitute for iron in variable amounts as it forms a solid solution with magnesiochromite (MgCr2O4). A substitution of the element aluminium can also occur, leading to hercynite (FeAl2O4). Chromite today is mined particularly to make stainless steel through the production of ferrochrome (FeCr), which is an iron-chromium alloy.

Cooperite is a grey mineral consisting of platinum sulfide (PtS), generally in combinations with sulfides of other elements such as palladium and nickel. Its general formula is (Pt,Pd,Ni)S. It is a dimorph of braggite.

Lonmin plc, formerly the mining division of Lonrho plc, is a British producer of platinum group metals operating in the Bushveld Complex of South Africa. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange. Its registered office is in London, and its operational headquarters are in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Anglo American Platinum Limited is the world's largest primary producer of platinum, accounting for about 38% of the world's annual supply.

Hans Merensky German South African geologist, prospector, scientist, conservationist and philanthropist

Hans Merensky was a South African geologist, prospector, scientist, conservationist and philanthropist. He discovered the rich deposit of alluvial diamonds at Alexander Bay in Namaqualand, vast platinum and chrome reefs at Lydenburg, Rustenburg and Potgietersrus, which led to some of the largest platinum mines in the world, phosphates and copper at Phalaborwa in the Transvaal lowveld, gold in the Free State and the world’s biggest chrome deposit at Jagdlust near Pietersburg.

Merensky Reef Bushveld igneous complex, South Africa

The Merensky Reef is a layer of igneous rock in the Bushveld Igneous Complex (BIC) in the North West, Limpopo, Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa which together with an underlying layer, the Upper Group 2 Reef (UG2), contains most of the world's known reserves of platinum group metals (PGMs) or platinum group elements (PGEs)—platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium. The Reef is 46 cm thick and bounded by thin chromite seams or stringers. The composition consists predominantly of cumulate rocks, including leuconorite, anorthosite, chromitite, and melanorite.

Stillwater Mining Company

Stillwater Mining Company is a palladium and platinum mining company with headquarters located at Littleton, Colorado, United States. It is the only palladium and platinum producer in the USA. The only other North America based palladium/platinum producer is North American Palladium, located in Canada. As of 2015, the current President and Chief Executive Officer is Mick McMullen.

Stillwater igneous complex PGE (Pt-Pd) deposit

The Stillwater igneous complex is a large layered mafic intrusion (LMI) located in southern Montana in Stillwater, Sweet Grass and Park Counties. The complex is exposed across 30 miles of the north flank of the Beartooth Mountain Range. The complex has extensive reserves of chromium ore and has a history of being mined for chromium. More recent mining activity has produced palladium and other platinum group elements.

Mining industry of South Africa

Mining in South Africa was once the main driving force behind the history and development of Africa's most advanced and richest economy. Large-scale and profitable mining started with the discovery of a diamond on the banks of the Orange River in 1867 by Erasmus Jacobs and the subsequent discovery and exploitation of the Kimberley pipes a few years later. Gold rushes to Pilgrim's Rest and Barberton were precursors to the biggest discovery of all, the Main Reef/Main Reef Leader on Gerhardus Oosthuizen's farm Langlaagte, Portion C, in 1886, the Witwatersrand Gold Rush and the subsequent rapid development of the gold field there, the biggest of them all.

Aquarius Platinum company

Aquarius Platinum plc is a Bermuda-registered and headquartered mining business.

Xtract Resources plc is a diversified metals and minerals producer based in London, United Kingdom. The company's shares are traded on London Stock Exchange Alternative Investment Market. Its CEO is Colin Bird. The primary focus of the company is gold and copper exploration and mining. The company's main assets are located in Chile, Mozambique, and South Africa.

Theophilous James Bennett "Theo" Botha is a South African shareholder activist. He has queried many companies in the area of good corporate governance, ethics, executive compensation, environmental practices and Black Economic Empowerment. He has also criticized South African corporate governance guidelines as too lenient.

Braggite is a sulfide mineral of platinum, palladium and nickel with chemical formula: S. It is a dense, steel grey, opaque mineral which crystallizes in the tetragonal crystal system. It is the central member in the platinum group end-members cooperite and vysotskite.

Impala Platinum company

Impala Platinum Holdings Limited (Implats) is in the business of mining, refining and marketing of platinum group metals (PGMs), as well as nickel, copper and cobalt.

African Rainbow Minerals company

African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) is a mining company based in South Africa. ARM has interests in a wide range of mines, including platinum and platinum group metals (PGMs), iron, coal, copper, and gold. ARM's Goedgevonden coalmine near Witbank is a flagship of their joint venture with Xstrata, and produces 6.7 million tons of coal per year. Production is expanding at the Two Rivers platinum mine in Mpumalanga. ARM owns 20% of Harmony Gold, the 12th largest gold mining company in the world with three mining operations in South Africa. Patrice Motsepe is the executive chairman; Mike Schmidt is CEO.

Potholes are frequently encountered during mining operations in the Bushveld Igneous Complex in South Africa. Two orebodies, the Upper Group 2 (UG2) and the Merensky Reef, host about 70% of the world's platinum group metals (PGM), and pose major extraction problems for the mining industry in their faults, dykes, joints, domes, iron-rich ultramafic pegmatoids, rolls and dunite pipes. The greatest mining problems, though, are presented by potholes.

The Modikwa mine is a large underground mine located in the north-eastern part of South Africa northwest of Burgersfort, Limpopo. It is part of the Bushveld Igneous Complex. Modikwa represents one of the largest platinum reserves in South Africa having estimated reserves of 215.2 million tonnes of ore grading 2 g/t platinum, 1.87 g/t palladium and minor grades of gold, rhodium, ruthenium and iridium. The mine has reserves of 13.8 million oz of platinum and 12.9 million oz of palladium and produces around 120,000 oz of platinum/year and 110,000 oz of palladium/year. The mine is owned under a 50%/50% joint venture by African Rainbow Minerals and Anglo American Platinum. Each of these companies have part of their stakes subdivided between other companies.

References

  1. ↑ "Sacked Wesizwe CEO scrapes back in pyrrhic victory". 2010-12-18. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
  2. ↑ "The bells toll for Musa Capital - Corporate governance". Moneyweb. 2010-12-18. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
  3. ↑ "Wesizwe Platinum CEO to stand down". 2010-12-18. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
  4. ↑ "Wesizwe Platinum wracked by coup allegations". 2010-12-18. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
  5. ↑ "Wesizwe | Contact us". 2010-07-08. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
  6. ↑ "Wesizwe finalises financing deal - Companies - IOL". IOL.co.za. 2010-12-18. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
  7. ↑ "Wesizwe's $855m deal finalised: Arthur Mashiatshidi - CEO, Wesizwe Platinum - SAfm Market update". Moneyweb. 2010-12-18. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
  8. ↑ "Mineweb.com - The world's premier mining and mining investment website Financing package concluded by South Africa`s Wesizwe Platinum - FAST NEWS". Mineweb. 2010-12-18. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
  9. ↑ "Wesizwe Platinum Advances to Six-Month High After Agreeing Takeover Terms - Bloomberg". 2010-12-18. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
  10. ↑ "China deal to transform Wesizwe Platinum: CEO". The Africa Report. 2010-12-18. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
  11. ↑ "Mining Journal - Wesizwe signs definitive agreement for Chinese funding". 2010-12-18. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
  12. ↑ $650m Chinese loan for Wesizwe’s Bakubung platinum mine project, International: Mining Weekly, 2013
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.