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ADU PReVIeW

Southern hopes ASX is alive

to the palladium

he missing link in the recent PGMs
Trebound on the ASX has been filled
by the arrival of Southern Palladium Ltd,
which brings with it a classic South Afri-
can Bushveld Complex opportunity.
The Australian PGM trend has been
fuelled by Chalice Mines Ltd’s remarkable
discovery of the Julimar complex north-
east of Perth. A genuine greenfields find,
Julimar has prompted a rush of PGM ex-
ploration across the eastern margins of the
Yilgarn Craton in Western Australia.
Despite the excitement surrounding the
new province, Australia remains many
years away from becoming a PGM pro-
ducer. This is where Southern Palladium
and its Bengwenyama project on the East-
ern Limb of the Bushveld come in.
The Bushveld has been the world’s larg-
est producer of platinum since the first
vertical shafts were sunk on the Eastern
Limb in 1924. The industry is dominated by
majors Impala Platinum Ltd, Anglo Plati-
num plc and Sibanye Stillwater Ltd and
among these elephants it can be hard for
grassroot juniors to flourish. However, with
the PGM market undergoing structural
changes in both supply and demand, an
opportunity is emerging for a new genera-
tion of black economic empowered (BEE) Members of the Bengwenyama community with Southern Palladium managing director
companies to establish themselves on the Johan Odendaal and Kurt Worden of Bridge Street Capital Partners
famed Bushveld.
The problem until now has been finding ownership and was in court a long time, project forward. That really does set us
the funding to reach production. Southern but the Bengwenyama are the rightful apart.”
Palladium is a classic example. owners,” Southern Palladium managing Ownership secured, Southern Palla-
The company’s story started in 2006 director Johan Odendaal told Paydirt. dium set out to get the project ready for
when the traditional owners of the land, “MUM is the 100% owner of the project, development from 2015, a process which
the Bengwenyama-ya-Maswazi commu- and that process has cleared up a lot of eventually led it to the ASX.
nity, worked with consultants Minxcon to the questions around the prospecting “When we received the prospecting
lodge a prospecting right application for right. It hasn’t been contested again and right, it was in the middle of a rocky patch
the two farms they were displaced from in we reapplied and were granted an exten- for South Africa and for the PGM sector,”
the 1940s. sion to the right in 2021.” Odendaal said. “President [Jacob] Zuma
The prospecting right was awarded to The ownership structure sees the com- wasn’t really impressing investors, com-
private group Genorah Resources which munity hold 12.3% of Southern Palladium panies were having difficulties with labour
subsequently vended it into ASX-listed with the two companies retaining a 30/70 and operations and the PGM prices were
Nkwe Platinum. share of the project through MUM. at rock bottom. We were trying to get
Nkwe drilled 30 holes in 2006-07 before Having seen others fall over in the BEE funders on board, but it proved very diffi-
the Bengwenyama obtained a court inter- process, Odendaal recognises the impor- cult.”
dict to halt exploration. A near-decade of tance of a strong, trusted partnership. Conditions began to change over the
legal disputes followed, with Bengweny- “We are partners, not BEE partners,” next few years. Zuma was eventually de-
ama and Minxcon – under the BEE group he said. “The community is a big partner posed and by early 2020, platinum and
Miracle Upon Miracle Pty Ltd (MUM) – fi- in this project, and it was they who came palladium prices were turning around
nally receiving a five-year prospecting to us back in 2006,” he said. “We have thanks to supply side issues and a grow-
right in 2015. continued to build that relationship over ing recognition of the role they would play
“It has been a complicated history of 16 years. They’re excited about taking the in the green energy revolution.

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