Generation Mining (GENM.TO) announced the management committee of the Marathon PGM project joint venture has approved the feasibility study by majority vote so apparently the decision wasn’t unanimous. As Generation Mining currently has 80.7% of the voting rights in the joint venture, it likely pushed through the approval.
What’s more important is that the clock has started to tick for Sibanye-Stillwater (SBSW) which now has 90 days to decide whether it wants to exercise its back-in right to earn a 51% stake in the project. The deadline to make that decision is July 22nd, and whatever Sibanye-Stillwater decides to do, it will remove the uncertainty surrounding Generation Mining. At this point our gut feeling says exercising the back-in right will be the least preferred option by Sibanye-Stillwater and we expect the South Africans to either walk away (and either continue to contribute pro-rate or dilute down) or trying to make a run to acquire full ownership of the project. But that’s just a gut feeling and we’ll have to wait for July to see what Sibanye decides to do.
Disclosure: The author has a long position in Generation Mining but no position in Sibanye-Stillwater. Generation Mining is a sponsor of the website. Please read our disclaimer.
