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Platfields moves closer to listing
Business Day, 13 March 2009
PLATINUM explorer Platfields is in advanced talks with the JSE on listing in the next few weeks, defying weak market conditions and a depressed platinum price.
Platfields CEO Bongani Mbindwane told reporters yesterday that Platfields held about R70m in cash, having raised about $10m mainly from European investors in August, which would be enough to continue at today’s rate of exploration for the next 24 months. It was spending about R1,2m a month, which includes drill rigs on three properties.
The company would raise no new funds on listing, but would wait for a “couple of months” until Platfields was better known to the market. Platfields directors would embark on a road show in Europe in May with the aim of raising about R200m in July and another R250m next year.
Platfields said at a previous media presentation, in September, that it would list on the JSE within the next couple of months to raise R200m. Mbindwane said the listing had to be postponed because of “confusion and panic” in the markets. He felt that by July the benefits of government stimulus packages in the US, Europe and the Far East would start to become evident and market conditions would become more positive.
Platfields shares are trading at about R2,80 over the counter, giving the company a market capitalisation of R1,5bn. The company is 37% held by black empowerment shareholders, whose shares will not be listed until their loans are repaid. The remaining 63% of shareholders are private investors.
The company has three platinum group metals projects on the eastern limb of the Bushveld complex: Berg, near Northam’s Booysendal and Aquarius Platinum’s Everest South; and the adjacent Leeuwkop and Tigerpoort properties near the Anglo Platinum/Anooraq Lebowa Platinum and Ga-Phasha properties. It also has a gold property, Grootfonteinberg, near Simmer & Jack’s Beta Mine in Mpumalanga.
Platfields operations director Joshua Hattingh said all of these properties were close to surface, and would be relatively cheap to mine, which made them highly attractive to investors.
Mbindwane said they had not been mined before, apart from a portion of Grootfonteinberg, where there was already some infrastructure, because ownership was in a number of hands. Platfields had made the effort to consolidate those mineral rights.
Business Day, 13 March 2009
PLATINUM explorer Platfields is in advanced talks with the JSE on listing in the next few weeks, defying weak market conditions and a depressed platinum price.
Platfields CEO Bongani Mbindwane told reporters yesterday that Platfields held about R70m in cash, having raised about $10m mainly from European investors in August, which would be enough to continue at today’s rate of exploration for the next 24 months. It was spending about R1,2m a month, which includes drill rigs on three properties.
The company would raise no new funds on listing, but would wait for a “couple of months” until Platfields was better known to the market. Platfields directors would embark on a road show in Europe in May with the aim of raising about R200m in July and another R250m next year.
Platfields said at a previous media presentation, in September, that it would list on the JSE within the next couple of months to raise R200m. Mbindwane said the listing had to be postponed because of “confusion and panic” in the markets. He felt that by July the benefits of government stimulus packages in the US, Europe and the Far East would start to become evident and market conditions would become more positive.
Platfields shares are trading at about R2,80 over the counter, giving the company a market capitalisation of R1,5bn. The company is 37% held by black empowerment shareholders, whose shares will not be listed until their loans are repaid. The remaining 63% of shareholders are private investors.
The company has three platinum group metals projects on the eastern limb of the Bushveld complex: Berg, near Northam’s Booysendal and Aquarius Platinum’s Everest South; and the adjacent Leeuwkop and Tigerpoort properties near the Anglo Platinum/Anooraq Lebowa Platinum and Ga-Phasha properties. It also has a gold property, Grootfonteinberg, near Simmer & Jack’s Beta Mine in Mpumalanga.
Platfields operations director Joshua Hattingh said all of these properties were close to surface, and would be relatively cheap to mine, which made them highly attractive to investors.
Mbindwane said they had not been mined before, apart from a portion of Grootfonteinberg, where there was already some infrastructure, because ownership was in a number of hands. Platfields had made the effort to consolidate those mineral rights.