Richard Floyd

RICHARD Floyd’s dream of resurrecting Johannesburg’s 88-year-old Blyvooruitzicht gold mine have been taking time to materialise despite his well-flagged intentions to raise $50m for his ambitions via a New York listing. The plan is for Floyd’s Aurous Resources Gold, which ultimately owns the mine through Blyvoor Gold, to merge with Rigel Resources Acquisition Corp, a US blank-cheque company. The funds will be used to boost Blyvoor’s production to 80,000 ounces a year in three years before making another step change in production to 150,000oz/yr. As of its half year, however, output was just under 11,000oz. 

As for the capital raise, Floyd said in December the firm had raised a total of R489m (about $25m), including R133m in unreported investment. Among the backers is Siyanda Resources, a black-owned group which has invested with Sibanye-Stillwater and Amplats. Siyanda has promised R20m in investment. In mid-January, the Securities Exchange Commission granted the Rigel Resources merger with Aurous so Floyd finally has lift-off. This is good news for all involved especially given the underwhelming start at Blyvoor even with the current gold price. 

Aurous has attracted criticism from some high profile people. Bernard Swanepoel, who once owned Blyvoor, said in March last year Floyd’s plans were “speculative’’. At least he has the support of Orion Resource Partners, an investor with $8.5bn under management, and which must think Aurous has a decent shot at breathing new life into Blyvoor. Let’s hope the gold price keeps trucking along.