Sylvania Platinum to sell iron ore assets in South Africa

Sylvania Platinum, the low-cost platinum group metals producer yesterday said that it will sell its South African iron ore assets on the Northern limb of the Bushveld Complex in South Africa.

After conducting an 18-month strategic review of the company's position and its next stage of production growth, the company said that it has decided to sell the iron ore assets in order to realise value for them independently and to allow it to focus on the production expansion from its platinum group metals (PGM) tailings dumps and the development of the Northern Limb platinum group metals and base metal surface mining operations.

"At present, the board does not believe any value is being ascribed to the company's iron assets," the company said in a statement.

London-listed Sylvania is a fast-growing platinum group metals (PGM) producer with tailings retreatment operations and shallow mining exploration interests located on South Africa's PGM-rich Bushveld Igneous Complex.

These assets, coupled with well-resourced metallurgical and engineering expertise, position the company firmly as a low-cost, low-risk high-margin PGM producer when compared to conventional underground platinum miners.

The iron ore assets are held by the company's wholly owned subsidiary, SA Metals Ltd (formerly Pan Palladium Limited), which was acquired by Sylvania in September 2009.

The Bushveld Complex is said to hold some of the richest ore deposits such as platinum group metals (PGMs), platinum, palladium, osmium, iridium, rhodium and ruthenium.

PGMs contain six metals, platinum, palladium and rhodium are the most important. PGM's are used in the chemical, electrical, glass, and petroleum refining industries.