Anglo American Platinum receives $385 mn offer for its 49% stake in Bokoni mine

Anglo American Platinum has received a $385 million offer for its stake in Bokoni Platinum Mine in South Africa, Reuters today reported, citing a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

Anglo American Platinum, known as Amplats, holds 49-per cent stake in the Bokoni mine, while the remaining 51 per cent is held by Atlatsa Resources Corporation.

Apart from buying Amplats stake, community-owned firm Baroka Tribal Mining,will also acquire Amplats' 22.5 per cent per cent indirect stake in Atlatsa Resources worth around $48 million, and also take on 1.7 billion rand in debt that Amplats loaned to Atlatsa, the report said.

In July, Amplats said that it plans to sell some of its mines in South Africa after rising costs and a five-month-long strike that crippled the mining sector in the country.

Amplats, based in Johannesburg had said it would sell its Union and Rustenburg mines and its Pandora joint venture in South Africa, which account for just over a quarter of the company's annual platinum production and added that it would assess its Bokoni mine

Amplats, majority-owned by diversified miner Anglo American Plc, plans to retain its smelting and refining operations in both Union and Rustenburg and its mine in Zimbabwe and several others in South Africa where operational costs are lower.

The five-month labour strike saw Amplats losing more than 40 per cent of its annual production and incurring 4.1 billion rand ($385 million) in costs.

The strike ended in end June after Amplats and two other big platinum producers, Impala Platinum Holdings and Lonmin agreed with South Africa's main platinum-mining union to increase annual wages by around $95 a month over a three-year period.

South Africa holds about 80 per cent of the world's known platinum reserves and produces about 70 per cent of mined platinum in the world each year.

Five of the largest platinum-producing mines in the world are located in the Rustenburg area in South Africa's North West province, and Amplats is the world's largest producer of platinum, accounting for about 38 per cent of the world's annual supply.