Tharisa CFO Michael Jones
JSE- and LSE-listed platinum group metals (PGMs) and chrome miner Tharisa has appointed UK investment bank Peel Hunt to manage a $5-million share buyback programme on its behalf.
The Tharisa board believes the company’s shares are trading at a significant discount, having been negatively impacted by the PGMs commodity price environment, while not reflecting the strong co-product contribution from its chrome sales.
Tharisa says it is committed to capital discipline and believes a share buyback at its current valuation supports this.
“We have maintained our strict capital discipline throughout the commodity cycles and believe it is opportune to allocate capital to a share repurchase programme to the benefit of our shareholders and reflecting our firm belief in the prospects for our company.
“While the PGMs commodity pricing environment is challenging, chrome prices have remained firm reinforcing the strength of our co-product business model.
“The Karo platinum project is a multigenerational resource and, while maintaining capital discipline, we continue on the road to delivering the necessary third-party financing to deliver the first phase into production,” CFO Michael Jones says.
Tharisa shareholders on February 21 approved a special resolution authorising the company to undertake a general repurchase of ordinary shares up to 10% of the 302.6-million ordinary shares in issue.
The company’s flagship operation is its Tharisa mine, in South Africa’s Bushveld Complex, where it produces PGMs and chrome concentrates.
It is also developing the Karo platinum mine, in Zimbabwe.