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Gold/Mining/Energy : SOUTHERNERA (t.SUF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Letmebe Frank who wrote (6833)	3/5/2002 10:12:16 AM
From: PHILLIP FLOTOW	Respond to of 7235

I suppose it could be Implats. Here's a background story from a few months back: JOHANNESBURG (Dow Jones)--Making the shares of Impala Platinum Ltd. (O.IM), the world's second largest platinum producer, more tradable in the U.S. will be a key new year's resolution for recently appointed chief executive Keith Rumble. "Our ADR's listed in New York are currently unsponsored, but we are looking for a sponsor to improve tradability," he told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview. He concedes that the group is hamstrung by the uncertainty of what its major shareholder, Gencor Ltd. (O.GCR) will do with its sizable 46% stake. However, he expects Gencor, whose only assets are Impala shares and some cash, to undertake an orderly distribution of its Impala holding some time in 2002. "This is a drag on us as it locks up liquidity and presents a problem for mergers and acquisitions," says Rumble. Although a South African, Rumble was headhunted five months ago from Montreal where he was running the iron and titanium division of global mining giant Rio Tinto PLC (A.CRA). With a secondary listing in London complementing its primary listing in Johannesburg and its ADR program in the U.S., about 26% of Impala's stock is currently held by non-South African investors. This could increase once the Gencor shareholding has been resolved, but would be certain to do so if Impala could structure a deal with Lonmin PLC (O.LON), the world's third largest platinum producer. A merger between the two producers was barred by the European Commission in 1996 and has not been officially revisited. "We would still like to merge with them as it would make economic sense, but they seem to have gone cold on the deal," explained Rumble. Impala holds a 27% stake in Lonmin and has pre-emptive rights on acquiring the group's South African platinum operations if they are offered for sale. Easier to clean up in 2002 is Impala's various holdings in Aquarius PLC and its South African platinum subsidiaries. Rumble, who is a fan of alliances and joint ventures, would like Impala to end up owning 30% to 35% of the Aquarius group which currently produces around 130,000 oz of platinum group metals a year. "Our aim is to be producing 2.2 mln oz of PGMs a year by 2006 and partnerships will play an important role in supplementing output from our own mines," he said. Impala expects output of platinum group metals to be a record 1.38 million ounces in the year to June 30, 2002 from 1.2 mln oz in its previous financial year. Perhaps surprisingly Impala has ventured north to Zimbabwe for one of its major partnerships. Its boldness in moving into a country that is attracting precious little foreign investment has resulted in it controlling 80% of the known PGM mineralization on the Great Dyke, Zimbabwe's major geological structure "So far we've had nothing but co-operation from the Zimbabwean authorities," said Rumble, in sharp contrast to most impressions of South Africa's troubled northern neighbor. The increased used of mechanized mining and alternative blasting techniques are high on his agenda of ways to achieve improved effectiveness since Rumble's senses that record revenues of 11.97 billion rand ($1=ZAR11.4300) and net profit of ZAR4.65 bln will be hard to match in 2002. But he's upbeat about the medium term outlook for Impala and the broader platinum industry. "Revenues from our basket of PGMs will be sharply lower this year than last, despite the dramatic plunge of the rand," admitted Rumble. Reason is that the average price of the basket of PGMs in dollars has fallen to about $750 an ounce from an average of $1,200 a year earlier. Although the devaluation of the rand has assisted cashflow by about ZAR1 billion, this isn't nearly enough to compensate for the lower average dollar price, said Rumble. "So it is to operational efficiencies that we must increasingly look to sustain our bottom line growth," he said Impala closed Thursday on the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa at ZAR505, up ZAR22, or 4.6%. -By Angus Macmillan, Dow Jones Newswires; BTW, the US symbol is IMPAY. It closed at U$50.50 and yields 5%. PHIL