Zimbabwe lithium miners want royalties to be linked to prices
The battery metal has slumped from a peak in late 2022 amid oversupply and weak demand from the electric vehicle sector.
Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. announced a 9 billion rand ($500 million) deal that will result in black investors holding a 13% interest in the South African mining company and the Bafokeng business it acquired last year.
Implats, as the Johannesburg-based company is known, gained control of Royal Bafokeng Platinum Ltd. almost a year ago, following an 18-month takeover battle with Northam Platinum Ltd. Before the takeover battle, the biggest shareholder in RBPlat was the Bafokeng nation, a community of people in South Africa’s North West Province.
As part of the approval conditions for that acquisition, Implats agreed to promote a greater spread of black ownership in the platinum producer. Under the so-called black economic empowerment deal, local communities and employees will each hold a 4% stake, while a group led by Siyanda Resources (Pty) Ltd. will have a 5% shareholding, Implats said in a statement on Monday.
South Africa introduced a mining charter in 2004 to distribute the benefits from mining more widely among the country’s citizens to make up for racial discrimination during apartheid. At the time, that included a minimum black shareholding target of 26%.
(By Dylan Griffiths and William Clowes)
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