THARISA, the platinum and chrome miner, has listed its shares on the Namibia Stock Exchange as it seeks to improve liquidity, the company announced on Monday.
Phoevos Pouroulis, CEO of Tharisa, said the listing was intended to scoop up institutional investors who otherwise didn’t have direct local exposure to platinum group metal (PGM) mining. “We are confident the listing will bring new demand to our shares rather than dilute existing liquidity, with the JSE remaining the anchor for price discovery,” he said.
The shares debut today (November 9) on the Main Board of the Namibia Stock Exchange. This will be a further secondary listing for Tharisa as its shares are primarily listed in Johannesburg with a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange.
“It affords Namibian institutional investors direct access to a PGM and chrome producer, an exposure not otherwise available to them on the NSX, and reflects the long-term nature of Namibian pension capital, which is well aligned with our growth strategy as we advance Karo Platinum,” said Pouroulis.
Karo Platinum is a $545m project in Zimbabwe with the aim of producing 220,000 to 230,000 ounces in PGMs annually, a more than doubling of output in the metals for Tharisa. About $240m has been invested in Karo Platinum so far, said Tharisa in its fourth quarter production update last month. The remaining construction programme is backed by a $300m Nordic bond, while a $75m Zimbabwean working-capital facility is being finalised.
Peel Hunt said the combination of Karo and the underground expansion of Tharisa’s North West mine in South Africa could lift group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation by 80% over the next two years. It maintained its buy recommendation and 185 pence target price. Tharisa is currently trading at 103p/share.
For the 2027 financial year, Tharisa is targeting 150,000 to 170,000 oz of PGMs and 1.5 million to 1.65 million tonnes of chrome concentrate from its South African operation.
In August, Tharisa and Valterra signed a five-year concentrate offtake agreement for Karo Platinum, Tharisa’s $545m project in Zimbabwe. Then, on October 15, Tharisa said it had signed a second concentrate offtake agreement with Valterra Platinum, this time for PGMs from its Tharisa mine in South Africa. The offtake deal secures 50% of total concentrate produced by Tharisa, and replaces an agreement with Sibanye-Stillwater.
Valterra is also considering using metals processing technology developed by Tharisa to recover and process fine chrome at its operations, Tharisa announced.