Sishen rights for ICT ‘will raise stakes for Kumba’

The government is adamant that Imperial Crown Trading (ICT) is the holder of valid pcommercial peanut butter machine sale 2012rospecting rights in Kumba Iron Ore’s Sishen mine, which were snatched from ArcelorMittal South Africa last year after the steel producer failed to reapply for the licence on time. Kumba released a statement last week in which it objected to the acceptance by the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) of an application from ICT for mining rights.

Kumba did not believe the acceptance of the application was lawful, pending a high court review initiated last May over the prospecting rights awarded to ICT.Kumba, a subsidiary of Anglo American, learnt about the development on Wednesday last week. Analyst Barend Ritter at Sanlam Investment Management said yesterday that Kumba had objected strongly to the DMR’s acceptance of the application. “This could be due to the fact that ICT was not allowed access to the Sishen property to perform prospecting work. “(Kumba) will have to start another process to appeal the decision of the DMR… This appeal will be on top of the existing legal disputes they have with the DMR about the award of the prospecting licence to ICT and the legal dispute with ArcelorMittal SA.”