/ 29 April 2009

Competition Tribunal approves Aquarius Platinum merger

The Competition Tribunal on Wednesday said it had approved the merger of Aquarius Platinum, Rustenburg Platinum Mines and First Platinum.

The proposed transaction consists of two phases.

In the first phase Aquarius Platinum intends to acquire the business of Firstplats, comprising mining rights, properties and related fixed and movable mining assets of certain portions of the Brakspruit and Spruitfontein farms in the Bushveld Igneous complex in North West province.

The second phase will see Aquarius Platinum transfer the firm to the pooling and sharing venture, which exists between it and Rustenburg Platinum Mines in respect of Marikana Mine, which is jointly controlled by Aquarius Platinum and Rustenburg Platinum Mines.

On completion of the transaction Aquarius Platinum and Rustenburg Platinum Mines will jointly control the assets that constitute the transferred firm.

At 14.23pm shares in Aquarius Platinum were unchanged from R32 on the JSE.

The stock has gained 14,53% or R4,06 this month to date. — I-Net Bridge