Angloplat faces lawsuit

Angloplat faces lawsuit

October 24, 2004

By Antony Sguazzin, Business Republic

Johannesburg - Anglo American Platinum (Angloplat), the world's biggest platinum producer, faces a lawsuit by black investors that seeks to cancel mining concessions the company is relying on to help drive expansion.

Mampudi Mining, which represents the investors, wants rights to 12 platinum deposits, including the site of the Modikwa mine, which is co-owned by African Rainbow Minerals. The concessions are on the Eastern Limb of the Bushveld Complex, the world's biggest platinum deposit.

The lawsuit, filed on May 28, would go before the high court early next year, Mampudi said.

Angloplat first won the concessions during the apartheid era.

Mampudi said the government should not have extended them in 2000. "Mampudi and the other local communities were effectively excluded from ... the platinum mining industry."

Angloplat and the government said they would fight the lawsuit.

"The contentions advanced by Mampudi are ill-conceived and misguided," Martin Mononela, the chief director of minerals development for Limpopo, said in an affidavit filed with the high court.

See previous posting - Mining giants told to pay back Zimbabwean miners