OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Thursday 6.45pm
SHARES in Iscor moved sharply higher on Thursday after the integrated metals and minerals group announced that it would go ahead with its long-awaited heavy mineral sands project. Iscor said late on Wednesday that it will go ahead in April with a long-awaited R1,9-billion project to mine and process heavy minerals.
Iscor said in a statement that the project includes a mine estimated to cost R900-million which the group would initially fund, and a smelter whose capacity was expected to reach 250000 tons a year in titanium slag by 2005. ”Implementation will commence in April 2000 and includes a mining operation and smelter,” it said.
The project in KwaZulu-Natal plus its 40% stake in Ticor — an Australian-listed company which has interests in heavy mineral mining — would take Iscor’s market share of the world titanium market to 10%.
”We aim to grow the business to approximately 15% of the world market which will make us the world’s third biggest supplier of feedstock,” Von Wielligh said. ”We consider the heavy minerals industry as a high growth, high profitability sector as shown by the recent results of Ticor and the expected returns on our own heavy minerals projects,” added Con Fauconnier, executive director of mining. The market has been awaiting a decision on the project for the past year but Iscor felt it prudent to wait until it saw a reduction in risk associated with its Saldanha Steel project.
It was scheduled to make an announcement on the project when it released its interim results earlier this month, but the company said then it was still locked in negotiations to bring in equity partners. Iscor said on Wednesday that those talks are at an advanced stage, and that equity partners could take up to 50%.
The project is expected to create 900 direct jobs at full capacity, and Iscor said it would source 85 percent of the capital expenditure in the country. He said Iscor had already spent R300-million in developing the infrastructure and laying the groundwork for the project which would fastrack it by up to 18 months. — Reuters