IDC has approved a R500 million financial support to partially fund Eland mine
IDC has approved a R500 million financial support to partially fund Eland mine. Eland mine, located in the small town of Brits in the North West’s Madibeng local municipality, is a new development project with an 18 year mining right that will last until December 2036. The mine development will result in the creation of 2 700 permanent employees by year 2023, 80% of whom will be from the local municipality and its surrounding communities of Oukasie, Mothotlung, Mmakau and Letlhabile.
The mine is owned by JSE listed Northam Platinum Limited, an independent, integrated platinum group metal (PGM) producer that is currently the third largest PGM producer in South Africa by market capitalization. The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has approved a R500 million financial support for Northam over a five year period, to be utilised to partially fund the peak funding requirements of Eland mine.
“Northam remains appreciative of the support and confidence it continues to receive from investors in the DMTN programme. The support will assist in preserving and strengthening Northam’s liquidity during the COVID-19 pandemic” said Northam CEO, Paul Dunne. Eland mine’s total turnover is projected at R2 612 million per annum, and will be spent on domestically-sourced goods and services.
The new mine will be a large-scale industrial project that will have a concentrator complex with capacity to produce 3 million tons of PGM ore and 150 000 ounces of platinum, palladium, rhodium, gold and associated by-products such as chrome, nickel and copper, per annum. This project, due to its magnitude, will facilitate large-scale industrialisation and as such, contributes to the IDC’s long-term strategic objective to support industrial capacity development to enable structural changes of the South African economy, while advancing inclusive transformation.
As this project develops, it will potentially stimulate regional economic activity in the Brits area, and thus assist to ameliorate some of the economic hardship that befell the Madibeng area due to distressed industrial activity in the area. “We are pleased to have attracted more than R400 million of additional new long-term funding during the lockdown period. We believe the company is well placed to weather the ongoing COVID-19 challenges and we remain appreciative of the support of our investors,” said Dunne.
