Chairman Message

By Dawn Mokhobo, Chairperson of Wesizwe Platinum

Ms. Dawn Mokhobo Chairman’s Message By Dawn Mokhobo.   Despite the macroeconomic challenges that have delayed our production goals, Wesizwe remains committed to becoming a sustainable mid-tier producer of high-value PGMs and delivering a fair return to our shareholders. The previous year, 2022, presented a unique set of challenges as South Africa and Wesizwe continued to face systemic and mounting macroeconomic pressures. These have required the Company to remain agile and carefully re-assess our path to safely reaching our operational goals. We are acutely aware that we have not met our commitment to ramp-up production in the fourth quarter of 2022. We remain committed to delivering a fair-return for the risk taken by our valued shareholders. The external environmentThe Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated pervasive economic pressures and disrupted the ability of companies to productively utilise manpower, trade and develop. Entering 2022, we continued to navigate this environment, focusing on optimising our development activity and negotiating recovering global trade dynamics that impacted supply-and-demand in the value chain. Furthermore, the South African economy remains plagued by inflationary pressures, rising interest rates, an electricity crisis and poor municipal service delivery which dampened consumer confidence and led to increased operational costs. The interplay of these factors has hampered the Company’s ability to achieve our strategic objectives – most pressingly, achieving operational readiness. PGM markets experienced significant volatility and intra-year price movements. The continued challenges faced by the semiconductor marketplace and the global supply chain influenced demand and supply drivers. We remain optimistic that the PGM sector will continue to be resilient as prices remained relatively stable towards the end of the year, which hold a promise of high demand for our products once BPM becomes operational. Progressing to operational readinessOur strategic intent remains: To complete development, ramp up production and become a profitable business for our shareholders and ...  (Read more)

Investing in African Mining Requires a Long Term Perspective

An opinion piece by Ms Dawn Mokhobo, Chairperson of Wesizwe Platinum Limited

Dawn Mokhobo At this year´s Mining Indaba which ended this week, the focus of debate was firmly on finding ways to encourage the global mining sector to continue to invest not just in South Africa, but across the African continent as a whole. This call to action came against a backdrop of difficult sectoral challenges and a considerable amount of recent turmoil for the mining industry in this country over the past year, still reeling from the impact of plummeting resource prices, crippling strike action and the consequences of the Marikana disaster. However, when the Minister of Mineral Resources, Susan Shabangu, urged all parties to work together to ensure that the mining sector becomes a destination of choice for overseas investment, it rang a particularly pertinent and timeous note. As Chairperson of Wesizwe Platinum Limited, I represent a unique Chinese/South African mining joint venture that this month announced the confirmation of a US$ 650 million loan from the China Development Bank for the development of its Bakubung Platinum Mine project, located in the Western Limb of the Bushveld Complex, close to Rustenburg. The confirmation of this significant new funding arrangement for Wesizwe´s flagship project represents the first of several important milestones to be reached and announced this year and demonstrates the level of confidence in the project, and in the future of the South African mining industry, on the part of our Chinese shareholders, Jinchuan and the China-Africa Development Fund. This is not only good news for Wesizwe, as a company with a firm intent to become a significant mid-tier precious metals producer, but it also sends a positive signal to the country´s mining industry as a whole during what is undoubtedly a challenging period of time in its history. The Minister´s reaffirmation of the country's attitude and policy towards nationalisation not ...  (Read more)