Bushveld has a 45% interest in Bushveld Vametco Limited, which signed an amended and restated share purchase agreement (SPA) for SMC on 22 July 2016. The deal states that the company will acquire all the shares held by Evraz in SMC in a single stage, subject to financing and the fulfilment of several conditions precedents.
Since the July announcement, Bushveld Vameco has secured unconditional approval from the Competition Commission for the transaction. An application in terms of section 11 of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, of 2002 (MPRDA) for the ministerial consent to the acquisition was lodged with the Department of Mineral Resources and is currently being evaluated.
Furthermore, Bushveld Vametco was required, under the terms of the SPA, to provide proof of funding on 28 February 2017 in a form acceptable to Bushveld Vametco, acting reasonably, for the balance of the consideration payable to Evraz, being $14.8m. Accordingly, Bushveld Vameco has provided the required proof of funding to Evraz subsequent to which both Bushveld Vametco and Evraz have since commenced preparations for the completion of the transaction by the long stop date of 31 March 2017.
Busvheld Vametco has secured funding support for the balance of the acquisition comprising debt and mezannine debt instruments in respect of which it has signed term sheets. It is in advanced stages of negotiating definitive legal agreements.
Evraz Highveld Steel and Vanadium holds a 78.8% stake in SMC, which owns the Vametco vanadium mine and plant near Brits in the North West Province.
Vametco’s mining right lies adjacent to Bushveld’s Brits vanadium project, which is the continuation of the strike of the Vametco mine’s deposit with similar vanadium grades to the mine.
