Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman and DRDGold CEO Niël Pretorius
Photo by: Creamer Media
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed DRDGold’s shareholders on Wednesday voted in favour of all resolutions relating to the company’s proposed acquisition of certain assets at diversified miner Sibanye-Stillwater’s West Rand Tailings Retreatment Project (WRTRP).
Sibanye in November 2017 agreed to vend selected WRTRP facilities into DRDGold in exchange for a 38% stake in DRDGold.
DRDGold will issue about 265-million new shares to Sibanye in return for the assets. Sibanye also has the option to subscribe for more shares in DRDGold to increase its holding to 50.1% within 24 months.
“This transaction is a step-change for DRDGold. We have doubled our reserves and secured infrastructure to access these quickly. After many years of consolidation, this is a major advance towards growing our company,” said DRDGold CEO Niël Pretorius.
The transaction included passing a waiver of the obligation of Sibanye to make a mandatory offer to the remaining shareholders of DRDGold in terms of the provisions of regulation 86 of the Companies Regulations Act. An application will be made to the Takeover Regulation Panel to obtain a ruling with regards to the waiver.
The implementation of the transaction remains subject to, and conditional on, the requisite environmental authorisations and approvals to operate the selected WRTRP assets. It is anticipated that fulfilment of all outstanding conditions precedent to the transaction will occur during the second quarter of this year.
“We are thrilled to be one step closer to realising immediate value for our underused surface infrastructure and tailings storage facilities, while retaining upside to the WRTRP and future growth in DRDGold,” commented Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman.