Sibanye-Stillwater’s audacious bid for Lonmin, which created an enlarged entity that will become one of the world’s leading sources of platinum group metals, is facing another hurdle.
Once the court makes such an order, the Greater Lonmin Community wants both companies to restart merger talks that also involve Rustenburg mining communities. The Greater Lonmin Community suffered a blow at the Competition Appeal Court, which turned down its application on 17 May 2019 to appeal the Sibanye-Lonmin merger and its request to be admitted as an appellant in the matter. The court ruled that it wasn’t a key party of merger proceedings.
The same Davis judgment ruled against the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union in its appeal against a tribunal decision to conditionally approve the merger, which cleared all hurdles for Sibanye and Lonmin to put the merger through a shareholders’ vote. The inquiry probed circumstances that led to the deaths of approximately 44 people on 16 August 2012 after police shot miners at the Lonmin Mine in Marikana. The inquiry found Lonmin’s failure to comply with its obligations of building 5,500 houses for its workers over five years created “an environment conducive to the creation of tension, labour unrest, disunity among its employees or other harmful conduct.