REUTERS, Johannesburg | Tuesday
South Africa-based African Gem Resources Ltd (Afgem) debuts on the Johannesburg bourse today and will use the capital it raises on developing its tanzanite mine and other projects.
Afgem’s chief executive Mike Nunn said the gem stone miner, would use funds raised by free-floating 40 percent of the company to develop fully the tanzanite mine in northern Tanzania.
”We will also put money into evaluation of existing projects and we are looking at a very exciting project in Madagascar,” Nunn said, adding there were a total of four sub-Saharan mining and beneficiation projects Afgem was considering.
The company offered 30.4 million shares at R4.00 each as trading opened and it had privately placed a further 100 million shares last Wednesday.
Nunn said the company had completed a successful roadshow in London where a big resource fund had taken up shares.
”We are very chuffed with the way things are going. It is a very tough market and we are coming in behind a pretty scraggly bunch,” he said.
Afgem has secured the rights to mine an area in Tanzania known as Block C, which holds two thirds of the world’s known tanzanite deposits of the violet blue gem stone.
The mine has an estimated life of 19 years and will yield about 22 million carats of tanzanite. Tanzanite generates $150 million in sales worldwide. It is the second-most popular gemstone in the United States after sapphires.
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