Phalaborwa Mine Stake To Be Sold To Empowerment Partner
Rio Tinto, the world’s third-largest mining company, plans to sell stakes in its South African mines, including the world’s biggest titanium operation, to comply with targets for black investment. It had appointed SA’s second-biggest financial services company, Rand Merchant Bank, to advise on the sale of a stake in Richards Bay Minerals, spokesman Nick Cobban said on Friday.
Rio Tinto, based in London, jointly owns the titanium mine with BHP Billiton and is the biggest shareholder in Palabora Mining, SA’s largest copper producer.
“The process is under way on both of those,” Cobban said by phone from London, without naming the companies that have bid. “We should have something definitive on Palabora by the end of this year, while Richards Bay Minerals may run into next year.”
SA’s government in 2004 passed a law forcing miners to sell 26% of their mines to black investors by 2014. The law aims to provide some redress to black South Africans for the discrimination suffered under apartheid.
Richards Bay Minerals, where Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton have for three decades dredged beach sand for so-called heavy minerals, yields 1,9-million tonnes of titania, rutile, pig iron and zircon each year.
It produces the raw material for about a quarter of the global market for titanium dioxide, a white pigment used in paint and dyes, according to the company’s website.
The $9bn a year titanium dioxide market is bigger than the global nickel market, according to the website of Randsburg International Gold Corporation, a Vancouver-based heavy minerals deposits prospector.
The pigment, for sale in North America, traded at $1,12 a pound on Friday.
Glenda Gerber, a spokeswoman for BHP Billiton in Johannesburg, referred all queries to Rio Tinto.
George Deyzel, the managing director of Richards Bay Minerals, was not immediately available for comment.
Palabora, in which Anglo American owns a 27% stake and Rio Tinto a 49% holding, produced 80000 tons of copper last year from operations in Limpopo province. It also produces vermiculite.
Rio Tinto has already sold a stake in its Chapudi coal deposit, which it plans to develop into a mine in Limpopo province, to Kwezi Mining, a closely held company controlled by black investors.
Rio Tinto, based in London, jointly owns the titanium mine with BHP Billiton and is the biggest shareholder in Palabora Mining, SA’s largest copper producer.
“The process is under way on both of those,” Cobban said by phone from London, without naming the companies that have bid. “We should have something definitive on Palabora by the end of this year, while Richards Bay Minerals may run into next year.”
SA’s government in 2004 passed a law forcing miners to sell 26% of their mines to black investors by 2014. The law aims to provide some redress to black South Africans for the discrimination suffered under apartheid.
Richards Bay Minerals, where Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton have for three decades dredged beach sand for so-called heavy minerals, yields 1,9-million tonnes of titania, rutile, pig iron and zircon each year.
It produces the raw material for about a quarter of the global market for titanium dioxide, a white pigment used in paint and dyes, according to the company’s website.
The $9bn a year titanium dioxide market is bigger than the global nickel market, according to the website of Randsburg International Gold Corporation, a Vancouver-based heavy minerals deposits prospector.
The pigment, for sale in North America, traded at $1,12 a pound on Friday.
Glenda Gerber, a spokeswoman for BHP Billiton in Johannesburg, referred all queries to Rio Tinto.
George Deyzel, the managing director of Richards Bay Minerals, was not immediately available for comment.
Palabora, in which Anglo American owns a 27% stake and Rio Tinto a 49% holding, produced 80000 tons of copper last year from operations in Limpopo province. It also produces vermiculite.
Rio Tinto has already sold a stake in its Chapudi coal deposit, which it plans to develop into a mine in Limpopo province, to Kwezi Mining, a closely held company controlled by black investors.
Labels: BEE, Palabora Mining, Phalaborwa
posted by Kruger2Canyons.com at
Monday, July 10, 2006
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