the saga continues out now

PERTH (miningweekly.com) - Diversified miner African Rainbow Minerals and its joint venture partner Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) were offered the Hoepekrantz property as a settlement in its dispute with ASX-listed Nkwe Platinum, but refused the offer, a source close to the deal said.

The Hoepakrantz tenement is estimated to host some 16-million ounces of platinum group metals and was one of five farms at the heart of the dispute between Nkwe, ARM and Amplats.

The settlement offer was made before Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) granted Nkwe Platinum a mining right over this property, and two others, in February this year.

The DMR granted mining rights over the Garatau, De Kom and Hoepakrantz farms, confirming the company’s legal tenure over these farms, and enabling Nkwe to fanalise its joint venture funding for the Garatau project.

However, ARM and Amplats have both indicated that they would continue to take the “necessary steps” to protect its shareholders in respect of the Modikwa Deeps properties.

In a statement made shortly after the award of the mining rights, ARM said that its litigation process against Nkwe would continue, and would now include a challenge of the issue of the mining right.

The source told Mining Weekly on Friday that while the settlement offer was currently still on the table, there was no certainty whether Nkwe would decide that the granting of the mining right negated the necessity of the offer.

In December last year, Nkwe and its black economic empowered partner Genorah Resources initiated discussions with Anglo Platinum and ARM, as well as the Department of Minerals Resources in order to settle a long-standing dispute as to the ownership of the five farms.

The matter had initially been settled in Nkwe’s favour in 2008, however, the platinum developer restarted negotiations to further conclude a binding court-approved settlement.

It was expected that the ownership dispute would be resolved shortly.