From Red Rock Resources thread19 May 2017 10:47
RRR hold a 1.2% stake in Tshipi manganese mine. Here's yesterdays metal bulletin article:
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FOUR FERRO-ALLOYS GROUPS NAMED AMONG BIDDERS FOR TSHIPI
Published by Rena Gu, Janie Davies, and Ellie Wang of MetalBulletin
May 18, 2017
15:49 GMT
London
Market sources have identified four major companies active in the ferro-alloys sector as being among the bidders for the Tshipi manganese mine, they told Metal Bulletin.
At least ten companies, based in China, Japan, India and the west, submitted preliminary offers for the South African miner in April, Metal Bulletin reported at the time.
Fellow manganese ore producers South32 and United Manganese of Kalahari (UMK) have been named among them, along with Chinese electrolytic manganese metal producer Ningxia Tianyuan Manganese Industry Co (TMI) and Chinese investment group Citic Dameng.
An acquisition of Tshipi either by South32 or by UMK would partly heed long-standing calls for consolidation in South Africa’s manganese industry amid protracted concern about oversupply from the country.
TMI’s interest continues what market participants regards as a trend, set by the company in 2016, for Chinese manganese ore importers to buy upstream assets overseas. Its 2016 purchase of a stake in Consmin granted it offtake of 600,000 tpy of ore from the Jersey-headquartered miner’s Ghana Manganese subsidiary.
It was TMI’s Consmin deal that prompted early predictions that Chinese groups would be well-represented among the parties interested in Tshipi.
A spokesman for the owners of Tshipi declined to comment.
Tshipi’s owners are simultaneously pursuing a sale and an initial public offering (IPO) on the Johannesburg Stock
Exchange after announcing in March that they had appointed Bank of America Merrill Lynch as a financial adviser.
Tshipi expects to produce 2.11 million tonnes of manganese ore in 2017, an increase of 21% from 2016.
Metal Bulletin’s 44% manganese ore index cif Tianjin peaked at $9.22 per dry metric tonne unit on December 16, 2016 before subsequently moving as low as $4.02 per dmtu on March 17 this year. It was last assessed at $5.49 per dmtu on Friday May 12.
The 37% manganese ore index fob Port Elizabeth hit highs of $7.96 per dmtu on November 25, 2016. It too dropped dramatically at the start of 2017, hitting lows of $2.23 per dmtu on March 10. The index has since regained some losses, reaching $4.38 per dmtu on Friday May 12.
The two indices will be next calculated on Friday May 19.
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https://www.metalbulletin.com/Article/3718384/Search-results/Four-ferro-alloys-groups-named-among-bidders-for-Tshipi.html