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Cape Town - Atlatsa Resources [JSE:ATL] has entered into a letter agreement with Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) [JSE:AMS] on Friday.
In terms of this two-phased transaction, Atlatsa will implement a care and maintenance strategy for the Bokoni Mine.
Atlatsa will also implement a financial restructure plan for itself and its subsidiaries. This will be conditional on Amplats acquiring and including into its adjacent mining rights the resources specified in the Central Block and Kwanda North prospecting rights.
Amplats has agreed to suspend servicing and repayment of about R4.2bn debt incurred by Atlatsa Group until December 31 2019. Upon implementation of Phase 2 of the agreement, all debt incurred during this debt standstill period will also be capitalised and/or written off, in accordance with the debt write-off.
The salient terms of the letter agreement include that Atlatsa places the Bokoni mine on care and maintenance, and that Amplats funds all costs associated with the care and maintenance process up until December 31 2019.
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Amplats must also suspend servicing and repayment of all current and future debt owing by Atlatsa Group until December 31 2019.
The Bokoni mine has incurred negative cash flow of about R500m for the first six months of 2017. The immediate to medium-term outlook for the mine remains negative, given the current weak pricing environment which is expected to remain under pressure for the foreseeable future, according to Atlatsa.
On Friday morning Atlatsa shareholders were informed that trading in its securities on the JSE was halted. It resumed again by mid-afternoon. Trading in the company’s securities on the Toronto Stock Exchange remained unaffected.
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