SOUTH African mining company Kroondal Platinum and Australia’s Aquarius Platinum have merged to create a precious metals giant worth 200m pounds. Aquarius and Kroondal announced plans to merge through a paper swap where 100 Aquarius shares would be offered for every 100 Kroondal shares through the Australian firm making a secondary listing on the Johannesburg bourse. Kroondal managing director Dave Evans recommended that shareholders accept the offer by Aquarius, which already owns 43 percent of the South African firm, and said that the company had healthy cash flows from its mine, which was producing 12-13 000 ounces a month of platinum group metals. Aquarius will use the cash flows to finance mine projects in South Africa. ”We need to add approximately 15 percent to reach full production, which will be done by the end of this year,” Evans said. – Reuters