Atomaer invests approx. USD $2 millioninto the Ni/PGM play, Braemore Resources. Atomaer received 15.3 million shares in the recent placement for value of approx. $2 million USD. Per Braemore "The net proceeds of the placing would be used to fund the bankable feasibility study on the Leinster nickel tailings project and the major capital equipment required for the first PGM smelter in South Africa..."
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RNS Number : 2595Y Braemore Resources PLC 03 July 2008
3 July 2008
AIM: BRR
BRAEMORE RESOURCES PLC
("Braemore Resources" or "the Company")
Holdings in Company
As part of the completed placing announced on 2 July 2008, Atomaer Holdings Pty Ltd ("Atomaer") subscribed for 15,385,000 ordinary shares at the placing price of 6.5p. Following this transaction Atomaer's holding of ordinary shares in the Company is 315,385,000 ordinary shares representing approximately 40.0% of the issued share capital of the Company.
Immediately prior to the placing Atomaer's shareholding represented 43.5% of the issued share capital of the Company.
For further information please contact:
David Russell
Braemore Resources plc
Tel: +61 (8) 92 188 833
Gerard Kisbey-Green / Erik Anderson
Investec Bank (UK) Limited
Tel+ 44 (0) 20 7597 5000
Justine Howarth / Ana Ribeiro
Parkgreen Communications
Tel: +44 (0) 7933 8780
This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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Related story on the PGM side....
https://www.miningmx.com/platinum/649587.htm
Race for an independent platinum smelter is on
Posted: Fri, 04 Jul 2008
[miningmx.com] -- LONDON-listed Braemore Resources, which is to dual-list on the JSE within the next month, is one of at least two contenders to establish an independent platinum group metal (PGM) smelter/refinery complex.
The other group known to be keen to develop such a project is AIM-listed platinum junior Ridge Mining, which has also indicated it’s looking at a dual listing on the JSE. Both groups have sought – and found – official support for their proposals , as building a new PGM smelter/refinery is viewed as having high national development priority.
Braemore has teamed up with Mintek to develop its ConRoast process, while Ridge has brought South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) on board as a 26% shareholder in its Sheba’s Ridge project.
Braemore has just appointed a new CEO with effect from 1 July, when Leon Coetzer will take over from acting joint CEOs David Russell and Clayton Dodd, who stood in when former CEO Hamish Bohannan quit abruptly. Coetzer was head of process control and instrumentation at Anglo Platinum. For his move to Braemore he’ll receive 1.7 million ordinary shares, which will vest after 12 months, as well as nine million options.
The three platinum heavyweights – Anglo Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin – have played major roles in opening up South Africa’s platinum sector to newcomers through agreements to toll treat the concentrate they produce. But marketing control of the refined metal still remains overwhelmingly with the ‘big three’. The only junior that falls outside the net is Northam Platinum, now controlled by Mvelaphanda Resources.
The process of smelting and refining PGMs is a technologically complex business, because six PGMs plus gold must be recovered along with copper and nickel. Each of the three platinum majors uses a different process and, unlike the gold sector, they don’t cooperate on technical matters.
The key technical challenge in smelting is controlling the level of chrome in the mix – and that’s becoming more critical. The mines are treating greater volumes of UG2 ore, which has higher chrome values than the Merensky Reef they have typically mined.
Excess chrome can cause smelters to burst and Lonmin, in particular, has experienced serious problems over the past three years in operating its smelter.
Braemore’s ConRoast process has been focused on treating ores with higher chromium content, as well as reducing the smelter’s sulphur dioxide emissions. ConRoast uses a DC-arc furnace for alloy smelting instead of matte smelting, which is traditionally done in a conventional six-in-line submerged arc furnace.
Braemore has run a DC-arc furnace at Mintek from October 2007, since when it’s treated high-chromium material at rates of more than 1,000 tonnes/month, from which a total of 600 tonnes of alloy containing PGMs has been produced.
Braemore says its PGM recoveries have consistently exceeded 99%. The plant is to be upgraded to three megawatts, which will increase its capacity to 2,000 tonnes/month in the third quarter of 2008.
Braemore is also carrying out a feasibility sutyd for a 10 MW ConRoast smelter to be built near Rustenburg to treat concentrates “from emerging and established PGM producers”. Commissioning is planned for 2010, and that could be followed by a larger facility of around 40 MW, which would incorporate a base metal refinery.
Ridge Mining’s Sheba’s Ridge project will produce 24,000 tonnes/year of nickel, in addition to 390,000 oz of PGMs if its gets the go-ahead.
That volume of nickel output means Ridge will have to build its own smelter/refinery as it won’t be able to get the material toll refined elsewhere.
Management’s approach, given that reality, has been to look at developing a full-scale base metal and precious metals smelter/refinery complex that would treat production from Sheba’s Ridge as well as from other junior platinum companies.
Such a plant would compete for toll smelting/refining business with the ‘big three’, whose installed smelting/refining capacity may not be able to cater anyway for their own expansions plus those of the juniors, assuming they all come on stream.
Strategic motivation driving both Braemore and Ridge is that ownership of an independent smelter/refinery would give them a powerful advantage in any future consolidation of South Africa’s junior platinum sector.