Mine sale means further reduction of Lanxess ties to chrome
18/11/2019
In a new announcement on November 18, the company said it had found a buyer for its majority stake in a chrome mine near Rustenburg. Lanxess owns 74% of the mine, which it will sell to Clover Alloys, subject to the approval of the relevant authorities. Both companies expect the planned sale to be complete by the end of 2020.
A 26% shareholding in the mine will remain in the hands of Dirlem, an entity that represents employees and some private investors.
“We have focused our portfolio on specialty chemicals in recent years and are systematically continuing along this path,” said Rainier van Roessel, a member of the Lanxess board of management, on making the announcement. “Following the sale of our chrome chemicals business, it is therefore strategically logical to divest our stake in the chrome ore mine.”
Another factory in South Africa, at Merebank, will remain under Lanxess’s ownership and the company has said it will continue to manufacture chrome tanning salts there, on a contract basis for Brother Enterprises, ostensibly until 2024.
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