Precious metals miner Sibanye-Stillwater (JSE: SSW)(NYSE: SBSW) said on Tuesday it had increased its stake in Australia’s New Century Resources (ASX: NCZ) to nearly 71% in an attempt to acquire it.
The move comes only two weeks after the South African company launched its unsolicited takeover bid for the zinc miner, valuing it at A$144.1 million ($97.2m).
Sibanye-Stillwater wants to delist New Century from the Australian Stock Exchange once it gets more than 75% of the stock.
“Given that Sibanye Australia currently has voting power in 70.55% of the shares, Sibanye Australia believes the likelihood of a competing proposal emerging for New Century is low,” the company said.
It has also further placed a buy order on the local stock exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange to purchase shares on market on or below the A$1.10 offer price.
“This will further enable remaining New Century shareholders who are looking to sell their shares on market to dispose of their holdings in an orderly manner and receive payment,” Sibanye said.
New Century, which had until now advised its shareholders to not take action, said on Tuesday the bid is now open for acceptance.
Century tailings zinc retreatment plant. (Image courtesy of New Century Resources Presentation.)
The company’s Century zinc mine began open-pit production in 1999. Operations were placed on care and maintenance in 2016, following depletion of the original open pit reserves after producing and processing on average 475ktpa zinc and 50ktpa lead concentrate for 16 years.
New Century converted existing processing infrastructure to enable re-processing of legacy tailings waste dumps. The update was completed in August 2018 and the company has been re-processing tailings since.
The zinc mine is expected to run out of ore in 2027, with indicated and inferred resources holding an opportunity to extend operations beyond 2030.
New Century also has the Silver King lead-zinc-silver deposit in Queensland and the Mt Lyell copper mine in Tasmania.
