Jubilee Metals said it had received the first $15m of the $90m pay cheque promised for its local chrome and platinum group metal (PGM) assets, taking the group a step closer to an SA exit.
The miner’s departure from the SA chrome market reflects the toll that soaring electricity costs and a thriving black market have taken on local chrome processors, putting the country at risk of missing out on the critical mineral boom.
The company has been in talks with buyer One Chrome over the sale of its SA assets since earlier this year, when it announced that the local operations had exhausted most growth opportunities the company could afford to pursue.
The handover of Jubilee’s suite of chrome plants coincides with a period of regulatory shake-ups, as the government works to salvage the local chrome sector's declining competitive position.
Business Day reported that trade, industry and competition minister Parks Tau last week began the process of placing chrome ore under export control by the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac), in light of estimates that illegally mined chrome now accounted for 10% of all chrome mined in the country each year, or about 2.7-million tonnes per year.
Jubilee’s 10 chrome modules in SA, capable of producing more than 1.65-million tonnes of chrome concentrate a year, make it one of the world’s largest chrome concentrate producers.
The company hopes to conclude its SA exit by January, disposing of all its local assets except the Tjate platinum project, a largely undeveloped exploration asset on the eastern limb of the Bushveld Complex.
In a statement on Monday, Jubilee said it had made detailed submissions to the SA competition commission over the sale of its local assets, with only a few stages of regulatory approval still pending.
“The last major condition precedent is audit related,” said the company.
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