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Nkwe unfazed over ARM's rights threat
André Janse van Vuuren | Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:43




[miningmx.com] -- NKWE Platinum’s managing director, Maredi Mphahlele, has played down the company’s unresolved row with African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) and Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) over tenure, saying the dispute won’t stand in the way of the company advancing its Garatau project.

Nkwe announced on Thursday it had been granted mining rights by the Department of Mineral (DMR) Resources over three of its five properties on the eastern limb, of which the company’s rightful tenure has been challenged by ARM and Amplats.

The dispute has been raging since 2006, with the DMR acting as mediator in the latest attempt to make the parties reach a settlement. The properties are down-dip from ARM and Amplats’ Modikwa joint venture.

In response to Nkwe’s announcement on the mining rights, ARM said the parties have been negotiating to reach an out of court settlement and that no agreement has been reached to date.

“ARM and Amplats are willing to continue negotiations with the DMR and other parties involved in the matter in an attempt to resolve the situation,” read a company statement. “The litigation will continue and will include a challenge of the issue of the mining right by the DMR.”

Mphahlele was unperturbed, however. He said the awarding of the rights confirmed Nkwe’s legal tenure over the farms and that the company was about to finalise negotiations with a suitable joint venture partner over the development of the properties, and that the standoff with ARM and Amplats would not jeopardise Nkwe’s chances of landing such a partner.

“People will make their own assessment of the risk involved,” Mphahlele told Miningmx. “Disputes are part and parcel of the industry and I don’t think this (ARM and Amplats) will change the development potential of the project.”

The Garatau project, consisting of the farms De Kom and Garatouw, has a total resource of 23.3 million ounces of platinum group metals. A completed bank feasibility study estimated monthly production of 300,000 tonnes of ore for 400,000oz of platinum group metals production per year. Recoveries of the Merensky reef could be as high as 90% to 92%, with UG2 at 85% to 87%.

Mphahlele said the company would now seek to acquire skills, as it transforms from being an explorer to a miner and producer.

MIRACLE UPON MIRACLE

Nkwe would also continue to face legal challenges from a company and community grouping over the prospecting rights of its other two farms, Eerstegeluk and Nooitverwacht.

Bengwenyama Minerals succeeded in a Constitutional Court case in 2010 to have the rights over the two farms set aside. The DMR has subsequently awarded the rights over Eerstegeluk to the Bengwenyama ya Maswati community, with Genorah Resources (Nkwe’s majority shareholder) as the economic partner.

The Bengwenyama community, along with Genorah and Miracle upon Miracle (controlled by the directors of Bengwenyama Minerals) were jointly awarded the rights over Nooitverwacht.

Mike Nahon of Bengwenyama Minerals/Miracle upon Miracle told Miningmx the group has submitted an application to the North Gauteng High Court to have Genorah’s rights set aside. Genorah/Nkwe is yet to file an answering affidavit.

Asked for comment, Mphahlele said he was confident that Miracle upon Miracle’s application was without substance.