Mining and minerals

‘Sources say: “A strong legal firm with a good reputation.” “Customer service is excellent – they are very accommodating and the advice is practical.”.’
Chambers Global, 2013

Our South African mining and minerals team offers a full range of resource-related legal services to both domestic and international clients. Having worked on pan-African and cross continent matters in the mining sector for over 60 years, our team are recognised leaders within the market for specialist advice on all matters pertaining to South African mining law, including innovative mining transactions and complex disputes.

We advise both locally and as part of our global mining and minerals group, acting for a number of high profile clients on multi-jurisdictional mandates across Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Central Asia. We also understand the importance of maintaining a strong awareness of emerging and transition markets and have dedicated ourselves to capturing this knowledge and using it to our clients’ best advantage. ’Our deep industry experience and our existing network of African legal experts are unrivalled in the market, and we have become a recognised leader in this sector.

Our areas of work include:

• corporate and transactional
• environmental
• finance
• health and safety
• litigation and dispute resolution
• regulatory
• tax

Our recent work:

• Advising SacOil Holdings in the US$30.9 million facility to fund an acquisition as part of the conclusion of a farm in agreement by one of its subsidiaries
• Advising Exxaro Resources Limited on the US$3.4 billion combination of its Mineral Sands Operations with the businesses of Tronox
• Advising Rio Tinto on the acquisition of 50 per cent interest in Richards Bay Minerals being sold by BHP Billiton.
• Advising Zimbabwe Power Corporation (ZPC) together with KPMG and Hatch on two mining related power projects at Hwange and Kariba Dam
• Advising Kumba Iron Ore Ltd in a series of contractual and mining regulatory disputes
• Advising Rustenburg Platinum Mines Ltd (Subsidiary of Anglo American Platinum Ltd) in dispute proceedings relating to prospecting and mining rights for platinum group metals in respect of the farm Rooderand
• Advising Investec Bank Limited on the financing of Gold One Africa Limited and New Kleinfontein Goldmine (Pty) Limited
• Advising Standard Chartered Bank, The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited, Credit Suisse AG and Caterpillar Financial SARL, as joint lead arrangers to the borrower, Discovery Metals (Botswana) (Proprietary) Limited in connection with financing of the Boseto copper mine in the Ngamiland District of Botswana

Awards and accolades:

• African Mining deal of the Year (Boseto deal) 2012, Project Finance Magazine

More information on our global mining practice