Jubilee Platinum sets up new £10mln facility and looks for platinum sources.
03.01.2014
Jubilee Platinum (LON:JLP) is to use a new £10mln equity financing facility to help search for acquisitions to boost throughput at its Middelburg smelter in South Africa.
Production from Middelburg hit a new record recently with more than 35 tons of ferronickel produced in one 24-hour shift. The company also announced funding in December for the final phase of a programme that includes the expansion of the Middelburg operation to three operating ARC furnaces.
Two of these furnaces will be dedicated to the production of ferronickel metal and the third furnace to the production of ferrosilicon metal. Total capacity will rise to 13,900 tons of metal per annum with the third furnace.
Jubilee's strategy at Middelburg is to produce ferroalloys in the short term and over the longer term to use its ConRoast process for the smelting of platinum (PGE) concentrates.
The £10mln equity facility will help the search for potential acquisitions in platinum and other metals with a view to further utilising the ConRoast process, it said, and will replace the current equity based funding structure.
Leon Coetzer, Jubilee’s chief executive, said the company was pleased with the recent performance at Middelburg, adding that it will continue to talk to companies holding platinum-bearing assets near or at surface.
“The EFF funding structure offers the company the support to access funding when pursuing companies holding such assets."
