more press coverage on bloomberg

This appeared on my Bloomberg screen today.

Mining Weekly seems to have its own agenda imo.

http://www.miningweekly.com/article/the-saga-surrounding-south-african-platinum-prospector-nkwe-platinums-prospecting-rights-on-farms-that-form-part-of-its-tubatse-project-has-taken-a-new-turn-with-reports-that-the-department-of-mineral-resources-dmr-may-have-to-contest-court-action-last-ye

Magazine News This Week LEGISLATIVE ENVIRONMENT
Nkwe wins back prospecting rights rescinded by Constitutional Court, but disgruntled parties vow to appeal
|

By: Megan Wait
6th May 2011

The saga surrounding South African platinum prospector Nkwe Platinum?s prospecting rights on farms that form part of its Tubatse project has taken a new turn with reports that the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) may have to contest court action.

In December last year, the Bengwenyama ya Maswati community succeeded in getting the rights to two farms set aside in a Constitutional Court challenge to Nkwe?s significant shareholder, Genorah Resources.

The court set aside the prospecting rights on the Nooitverwacht and Eerste Geluk farms on the grounds that Genorah did not communicate properly with the Bengwenyama community.

In March, the DMR awarded the Eerste Geluk rights to the Roka Phasa community, with Genorah Resources as the BEE partner.

However, ASX-listed Nkwe announced at a press conference last month that the DMR had successfully processed the Section 104 applications on the farms, located on the Bushveld Complex, and awarded rights to both the Roka Phasha and Bengwenyama ya Maswati communities, with Genorah as the significant partner for the latter community.

Now Bengwenyama ya Maswati company Miracle Upon Miracle Investment (MUM), in partnership with the Roka Phahsa Tribal Authority, states in a report in a Sunday newspaper that they are shocked by the reawarding of the prospecting rights.

The report also states that a member of the royal family and deputy chairperson of the Bengwenyama ya Maswati Traditional Council, Makhosini Joel Nkosi, said neither Genorah nor the department had consulted his community. He called the Bengwenyama siding with Genorah ?imposters? and has laid charges of fraud against them.

Subsequent to the DMR award of the mineral rights for two farms, forming part of Nkwe Platinum?s Tubastse project, to both communities, with Genorah, a 60% shareholder in Nkwe, as the significant partner, there has been a split in the communities, with some factions claiming they were not consulted.

Further, rival rights applicant MUM CEO Mike Nahon told the Sunday newspaper the application process for prospecting rights was riddled with inaccuracies and his company would appeal to the Constitutional Court.

Nkwe stated at the press conference that the awards by the DMR solidified a union between the company and the communities that started four years ago. As a result of this award, Nkwe Platinum had regained interests in both the Garatau and the Tubatse projects, which consisted of five contiguous farms with a strike length of more than 30 km and bordering on Anglo American Platinum?s Modikwa joint venture to the east, Implat?s Marula mine to the north and Eastplat?s Spitzkop-Kennedy?s Vale project in the south.

Following the DMR announcement, Nkwe Platinum South Africa MD Maredi Mphahlele said that Nkwe and the Roka Phasha and Bengwenyama communities welcomed the award. ?This move is significant in that it provides not only economic opportunities for all but it also forges a strategic partnership that embarks on a meaningful and sustainable path of social and infrastructural development for the area,? he added.

The development of this platinum-mining project through the partnership would seek to create job opportunities for all members of the communities in addition to increasing educational and skills development programmes, he said.

Such development would bolster the already existing initiatives undertaken by Nkwe in previous years, which included a modest contribution towards the upgrading of water wells, the construction of two roads and a bridge, and the implementation of sports development programmes for the youth.

Further, the miner said that, through extensive consultation with the communities, it was committed to working with the Roka Phasha and Bengwenyama communities to facilitate infrastructural development to ensure that the future would see the building of clinics, schools, roads, bridges and houses, besides other developments, as well as the provision of electricity and clean water in the area.

Chief of the Roka Phasha Phokwane community and spokesperson of the Roka Phasha Phokwane Tribal Authority Thete Phasha told media representatives at the conference that the communities looked forward to cementing their relationship with Nkwe Platinum. ?We are relieved that prospecting of Eerste Geluk can continue for the benefit and betterment of all communities,? he added.

Adding to this, Bengwenyama ya Maswati community spokesperson Dr Sizani Nkosi said the community valued Nkwe?s sustained participation through meetings with the Tribal Authority and the Eerste Geluk/ Nooitverwacht Community Development Forum.

?This award is symbolic of the break of a new dawn in our area and it forges a new way of engaging in development. All partners will work together [on the basis of] mutual respect, shared values and a common vision. This is poised to set an example for similar initiatives elsewhere in integrating the spirit of unity,? he noted.

Meanwhile, the paramount chief of the BaPedi, Kgosi Kgolo KK Sekhukhune, has urged the two communities to appreciate the good fortune extended by the DMR.

?All communities must work peacefully to enjoy the bounty of the land. The culture of the BaPedi rests on time-tested principles of ubuntu.

?At the core of these principles is the belief that respect for human dignity is of paramount importance to a well-functioning society. I have the conviction that this is a human investment before being a commercial one. The people of Sekhukhune must unite as children of the King to build a lasting legacy that will benefit generations to come,? he said.

Nkwe aims to develop two mines with a combined yearly production of more than one-million ounces of platinum-group metals (PGM) from a targeted mineralisation base in excess of 100-million ounces of three platinum-group elements and gold.

Nkwe has completed a bankability study on its Garatau project, showing a 23,3-million-ounce metal content resource, consisting of a 14,2-million-ounce measured and a 9,1-million-ounce inferred resource.

The Tubatse project has an inferred resource of 11,8-million ounces of UG2 reef and 13,1-million ounces of Merensky reef. The projects have a surface footprint of more than 10 500 ha, underlain by both the Merensky reef and the UG2 chromitite seam from surface to a depth of 1 500 m.

ENDS

EB