OVERVIEW Sibanye has been actively acquiring gold and platinum assets since its creation. Among the most significant was the agreement to buy Rustenburg Platinum Mines Limited (including two concentrating plants and on-site chrome recovery plant from Anglo American Platinum). When the deal is concluded, Sibanye will be the world's eighth-largest gold producer, the largest gold producer from South African mines and the fifth-largest global PGM producer. The purchase of Wits Gold in 2013 gave Sibanye access to assets in the Free State and Mpumalanga provinces and the acquisition process continued in 2016 with the purchase of Aquarius Platinum in April. With 800 000 ounces of platinum, uranium as a by-product of its gold production and the possibility that it will also buy coal mines, Sibanye Gold is no longer just a gold company. An issue that mining houses want resolved is the question of empowerment. A figure of 26% has been set for shareholding by black South Africans in terms of the Broad Based BlackEconomic Empowerment (BBBEE) [Mining] Charter. The area where the government and the mining industry are yet to find agreement relates to what happens when black shareholders want to sell. If they sell to white investors, does the company have to sell new shares or does the status quo remain, in other words, is it "once-empowered, always empowered"? The Chamber of Mines says that the value of BBBEE deals since the year 2000 is R205-billion. Although the first two decades of democracy in South Africa saw some fairly robust exchanges in industrial relations, the labour
ONLINE RESOURCES Chamber of Mines of South Africa: www.chamberofmines.org.za Mining Qualifications Authority: www.mqa.org.za National Department of Mineral Resources: www.dmr.gov.za
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union movement itself was very stable. Most unions were allied under the banner of COSATU (the Congress of South African Trade Unions), which in turn was a key member of the tripartite alliance with the African National Congress (ANC) and the much smaller South African Communist Party. This no longer applies. One of the catalysts for change was the Platinum Belt strike of 2012 in which a rival to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) rose to prominence. The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) led the strikes that culminated in the tragic shootings at Marikana. There is also some movement in the diamond sector, with one of South Africa's richest men, Christo Wiese, increasing his holdings in Trans Hex and intending to de-list the company. Trans Hex has shares in the Namaqualand concession that De Beers sold in 2014. De Beers' biggest diamond mine in South Africa is in northern Limpopo where an investment of R280-million will expand production near the town of Musina. Venetia Mine is by far the most important part of De Beers' South African operation, accounting for 3.1-million of the 5.4-million carats recovered by the company from its six operations. In the Free State, De Beers’ Voorspoed mine will have a production capacity of 800 000 carats per year when it is fully operational.