Sibanye trades depleted gold shaft for cash and uranium exposure

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Sibanye trades depleted gold shaft for cash and uranium exposure

8:42 CAT | 10 Dec 2024

File photo: BusinessLive

Diversified miner Sibanye Stillwater on Monday said it has agreed to sell its Beatrix 4 shaft for 500 million rand ($28 million) in cash and shares to uranium exploration company Neo Energy Metals.

The Johannesburg-based company placed the shaft under care and maintenance in 2023 due to depleted gold reserves. The Free State mine also includes Sibanye’s Beisa uranium project, which holds an estimated 27 million pounds of the mineral used to generate nuclear power, according to the company’s resource estimates.

Sibanye said in a statement the deal is comprised of 250 million rand in cash while the other half is in shares equal to 40% of United Kingdom-based Neo Energy. Sibanye will also receive a royalty on all uranium sold from the Beisa uranium project up to a maximum $5 a pound.

“Sibanye-Stillwater will retain exposure to both the Beisa uranium project and a listed junior uranium company,” the company said.

The transaction also “immediately crystallises value for Sibanye Stillwater shareholders and fast-tracks the possible development of the Beisa uranium project, without extending the group balance sheet”, it added.

Neo Energy’s assets include the Henkries projects in South Africa’s Northern Cape province as well as the Beisa North and Beisa South projects in the Free State.

Sibanye, which has platinum group metal assets in South Africa, Zimbabwe and the United States, also mines gold in South Africa. It has recently diversified into battery metals lithium and nickel.

Along its PGM-producing peers Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum, Sibanye has been restructuring its business in response to the sharp decline in the prices of the metals used to curb vehicle emissions.

Source: Reuters