Developmental finance institutions are supporting SepFluor, which is seen as a vehicle to ensure that South Africa obtains fuller economic value from its fluorspar endowment. South Africa has the largest reserve of fluorspar but only a tiny share of the fluoro-chemicals market. The R2.1-billion, to be raised through a mixture of debt and equity in local and international markets ahead of its JSE listing, is for construction of a R900-million concentrator and a R1.2-billion fluoro-chemicals hub 50 km away, at Bronkhorstspruit's Ekundustria.
SepFluor, which was recently unbundled out of Sephaku Holdings, is privately held by 800 shareholders, more than 40% of them black. In terms of the unbundling arrangement, SepFluor is obliged to list before March 28, 2013. SepFluor CEO Alan Smith told Mining Weekly Online that Nedbank has been appointed as lead banker for debt and equity funding for both the concentrator and the hub projects. Key motivators for the two, linked projects, Smith says, are fluorspar's elevation to being declared a strategic mineral in both the US and Europe.
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