Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - Optimum Coal Holdings said Monday it intends to float on the JSE during the first half of 2010. The company has applied to list its shares in the general mining sector on the main board.
Optimum Coal is a black-owned and controlled South African mining group and is one of South Africa's largest coal mining companies with an extensive operational footprint located mainly in the Witbank coalfield region of Mpumalanga.
Its operations include Optimum Collieries, a large opencast and underground mining complex comprised of four coal production areas with a reserve base in excess of 270m tons of run-of-mine coal as at June 30 2009, of which 191m tons are classified as saleable.
For the year ended June 2009, Optimum Coal sold 9.3m tons of coal, of which 45% was exported. The company also has a 9% interest in Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) where it is the largest single BEE shareholder with a 6.86m tons export entitlement, of which 6.5m tons per year are available for its own use.
Optimum Coal also owns an effective 19.2% interest in Koornfontein Mines in Mpumalanga, which as at June 30 2009, had a reserve base of 46.5m tons of run-of-mine coal, of which 30.7m tons were classified as saleable. In addition, Koornfontein Mines owns a further 1.5m tons export entitlement at RBCT for its own use.
In November 2009, Optimum Coal agreed to acquire a further 21.8% effective interest in Koornfontein Mines with closing of the transaction subject to customary closing conditions, including the consent of the Competition Commission.
Optimum Coal's chief executive, Mike Teke, said: "A listing will be a major milestone for the company. It will improve our access to capital, raise our profile and help retain talent and skills necessary for operations of our scale.
"All these will contribute positively to the growth of our business and strengthen our position in the local and export coal market."
A prospectus including full details of the offer is to be published in due course.
- I-Net Bridge
