Projects in the Americas

In September 2021, agreement was reached with ioneer Limited, an ASX-listed mining development company, to establish a joint venture to develop the Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in the US through an initial strategic investment of US$70 million in ioneer Ltd, giving Sibanye-Stillwater a 7.12% stake in that company.

This transaction, our third in the battery or green metals sector, gives us a stake in a strategic lithium-boron asset and access to opportunities for value creation and growth in the US battery metals supply chain.

Rhyolite Ridge, an advanced stage exploration project in Esmeralda County, Nevada, aims to extract a large, shallow lithium-boron deposit, located close to existing infrastructure and centrally located between Las Vegas and Tesla’s Giga factory near Reno, Nevada. It is expected to be one of the first large scale lithium projects to enter production in the US. Production is currently scheduled for H2 2024.

At 31 December 2021, Rhyolite Ridge had a Mineral Resource of 36,000 tonnes at 0.3% lithium oxide (Li₂O).

Once all conditions precedent for the transaction have been met and the necessary permits obtained, Sibanye-Stillwater will contribute US$490 million for a 50% interest in the joint venture. ioneer will retain operational management responsibility.

The Altar project is an advanced stage copper-gold porphyry exploration project located within San Juan province, Argentina, approximately 10km from the Argentina/Chile border and 180km west of the city of San Juan. The project consists of eight wholly-owned and five optioned mining concessions which require additional drilling success and studies to allow a transition to feasibility stage.

As at 31 December 2021, Sibanye-Stillwater’s interest in Altar was 100%, subject to an initial earn in of 60% by Aldebaran Resources Inc which is still to be completed. On 7 June 2022, Sibanye-Stillwater exercised its rights to previously issued common share warrants in Aldebaran valued at US$1.113 million. The warrants expire on 15 September 2022. Sibanye-Stillwater has a 19.27% stake in Aldebaran.

Altar contained a declared attributable Mineral Resource of 1,408.6Mt at 0.4% copper and 0.1g/t gold (13,138Mlbs of copper and 4.3Moz of gold) as at 31 December 2021.

For more information, see Altar partnership

The Rio Grande exploration stage project, located in the Salta Province in northwest Argentina, is owned and managed by Aldebaran. It is a copper-gold porphyry deposit with an associated iron oxide copper-gold style alteration. Sibanye-Stillwater holds a 19.9% interest in the project through its shareholding in Aldebaran Resources.

As at 31 December 2021, Rio Grande contained a declared attributable Mineral Resources of 22.3Mt at 0.3% copper and 0.3g/t gold (134.7Mlbs of copper and 0.236Moz of gold).

The Marathon project is a PGM-gold-copper project, situated 10km north of Marathon, Ontario province, Canada. The project is managed by our joint venture partner, Generation Mining Limited (Gen Mining), which has also assumed all liabilities for the property.

Sibanye-Stillwater concluded an acquisition agreement with Generation Mining Limited (Gen Mining) in 2019 through which Gen Mining acquired a 51% interest in the Marathon project and formed an unincorporated joint venture with Stillwater Canada Inc, in exchange for a cash consideration of CAD$3 million and a 12.9% equity interest in Gen Mining. Gen Mining is the joint venture operator and has assumed all liabilities of the property.

During 2021, Gen Mining increased its stake, reducing Sibanye-Stillwater’s effective interest to 22.65%. This includes the direct interest of 16.5% in the project and indirect interest through the Group’s investment in Gen Mining.

As at 31 December 2021, Marathon had 56.4Mt of declared attributable Mineral Resources at 0.2% copper and a 2E+Au PGM grade of 0.7g/t (263.2Mlbs copper and 1.2Moz of 2PGM+Au). In quarter one of 2022, post the effective date of this statement, the joint venture parties agreed to Sibanye-Stillwater’s exchanging its project level ownership for a combined total corporate level equity interest of approximately 19.1% in Gen Mining.

The Denison project is a PGM exploration project on the Sudbury Igneous Complex (SC), approximately 30km to the southwest of the town of Sudbury, Canada. The project includes two zones adjacent to the old workings of the Crean Hill mine (the 109FW and 9400 zones).

The Denison project was acquired as part of the Lonmin transaction in June 2019. During 2019, a binding letter of agreement with Wallbridge Mining was executed in terms of which Wallbridge was appointed as the operator of the revised Denison property. At the end of December 2021, Wallbridge owned 17.8% of the project and Sibanye-Stillwater owned 64.9%. The remaining 17.3% is held by other external parties.

As at 31 December 2021, Denison contained 2.4Mt of 2E PGM declared attributable Mineral Resources at 1.2% copper and 0.5 g/t gold (66Mlb of copper and 0.034Moz of gold).