Trans Hex’s 40%-owned venture, Emerald Panther Investments 78 (EPI) has purchased the Namaqualand assets and liabilities from De Beers.
The completion of the deal comes after Trans Hex and DBCM concluded an amendment to the sale agreement under which a special purpose vehicle was created to house the state’s 20% stake.
As part of a management and marketing agreement between Trans Hex and EPI, the former will receive 5.5% of sales thereby increasing its interest in Namaqualand Mines to 52%.
Funding of ZAR189m ($17.4m) from state-owned Industrial Development (IDC) was reapplied with changes in the sale agreement, reported Mining Weekly.
Trans Hex earlier said that the acquisition of Namaqualand mines will increase the life of mine of its South African operations to 14 years.
During the year ended March 2014, Trans Hex’s South African production dropped to 52,081 carats, compared to 67,115 carats in 2013, due to a 14.9% decline in volume over withdrawal of joint-venture contractors and a 21-day strike by members of the National Union of Mineworkers.
