Sierra Leone woos miners to clean energy with $11 billion plan
Most mining firms rely on their own diesel supplies to extract iron ore, diamonds, rutile and bauxite in the resource-rich country.
Shareholders of South Africa’s Sibanye Stillwater voted on Tuesday in favour of a resolution to convert $500 million worth of bonds issued last year into shares.
The Johannesburg-based precious metals producer said 98.74% of votes cast during an online general meeting were “for” the proposal presented at the company’s general meeting.
Sibanye issued the convertible bonds last November, partly to fund the $156 million acquisition of a US-based recycling business as well as to improve the company’s liquidity.
The vote to convert the bonds means Sibanye will issue up to 524 million new shares, equivalent to about 19% of the shares currently in issue, the company said ahead of the vote.
A sharp decline in platinum group metal (PGM) prices has hurt Sibanye, resulting in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) plunging 72% to 2.137 billion rand in the quarter to March 31, from 7.755 billion rand last year.
The miner slumped to a $2 billion loss in the full year to December 2023.
On May 10, CEO Neal Froneman said declining earnings could impact Sibanye’s debt covenants – formal agreements between a borrowing company and its lenders that the company will operate within certain limits.
The company, which has diversified beyond PGMs and gold into battery minerals lithium, nickel and zinc assets in the United States, Finland, France and Australia is negotiating a temporary relaxation of the borrowing restrictions with lenders.
(By Eva Mathews, Anandita Mehrotra and Nelson Banya; Editing by Tasim Zahid, Bill Berkrot and Susan Fenton)
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