CORRESP 1 filename1.htm

 

 

Sibanye Gold Limited trading as Sibanye-Stillwater

Reg. 2002/031431/06

 

Registered Address:

Constantia Office Park

Bridgeview House · Building 11 · Ground Floor

Cnr 14th Avenue & Hendrik Potgieter Road

Weltevreden Park · 1709

 

Postal Address:

Private Bag X5 · Westonaria · 1780

 

Tel +27 11 278 9600 · Fax +27 11 278 9863

 

John Coleman

Division of Corporate Finance

Office of Beverages, Apparel and Mining

United States Securities and Exchange Commission

Division of Corporation Finance

100 F Street, N.E.

Washington D.C. 20549 – 7010

United States of America

 

January 17, 2019

 

By EDGAR

 

Dear Mr. Coleman,

 

Re:                             Sibanye Gold Limited

Form 20-F for Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2017

Filed March 30, 2018

File No. 001-35785

 

We refer to your comment letter (the “Comment Letter”) dated December 18, 2018 setting forth the comments of the staff (the “Staff”) of the Division of Corporation Finance of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) on the above referenced Annual Report on Form 20-F (the “2017 Form 20-F”) of Sibanye Gold Limited (the “Company”). For your convenience, we have set forth below the text of the Staff’s comments, followed in each case by our response.

 

Projects, page 41

 

1.              We note your disclosure of mineral resources for the Burnstone project. Please revise to remove the mineral resources from your filing as only proven and probable reserves may be disclosed in filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to Instruction 3 to paragraph (b) (5) of Industry Guide 7.

 

Response

 

The Company acknowledges the Staff’s comment and respectfully submits that the Company will revise future filings relating to the Burnstone project disclosures to comply with Commission’s requirements relating to property disclosure for mining registrants, whether as required by Industry Guide 7 or as permitted by the

 

www.sibanyestillwater.com

 

Directors: Sello Moloko* (Chairman) Neal Froneman (CEO) Charl Keyter (CFO) Timothy Cumming* Savannah Danson*

Barry Davison* Rick Menell* Nkosemntu Nika* Keith Rayner* Sue van der Merwe* Jerry Vilakazi* 

Lerato Matlosa (Corporate Secretary) (*Non-Executive)

 

Vat No.  473 020 9410

 

 

Commission’s recent amendments adopted in Commission Release 34-84509 (“Modernization of Property Disclosures for Mining Registrants”).

 

Reserves of Sibanye-Stillwater as of 31 December 2017, page 255

 

2.              We note your disclosure of 4E PGM basket grade on page 261 and a 2E PGM basket grade on page 263. Please revise to provide average individual metal grades and contained metal associated with your 4E PGM and 2E PGM reserves. In the alternative provide additional detail with respect to your calculation of your basket grades such that contained metals for each PGM in your mineral reserve can be determined.

 

Response

 

The Company acknowledges the Staff’s comment and respectfully submits that the Company will expand in future filings the disclosure of average individual metal grades and contained metal associated with the 4E PGM and 2E PGM reserves by including a tabulation which shows the metals per prill split with the relevant percentages, as follows:

 

 

 

 

 

Totals

 

Prill Split %

 

Prill Split — Grade (g/t)

 

Prill Split — (Moz)

 

Mine

 

Reef

 

Grade
(g/t)

 

Moz

 

Pt

 

Pd

 

Rh

 

Au

 

Pt

 

Pd

 

Rh

 

Au

 

Pt

 

Pd

 

Rh

 

Au

 

Kroondal

 

UG2

 

2.6

 

1.804

 

56.96

 

32.03

 

10.26

 

0.75

 

1.481

 

0.833

 

0.267

 

0.020

 

1.028

 

0.578

 

0.185

 

0.013

 

Rustenburg

 

Merensky

 

5.2

 

1.746

 

63.81

 

27.3

 

3.98

 

4.91

 

3.318

 

1.420

 

0.207

 

0.255

 

1.114

 

0.477

 

0.069

 

0.086

 

 

 

UG2

 

3.7

 

13.960

 

54.32

 

34.36

 

10.53

 

0.79

 

2.010

 

1.271

 

0.390

 

0.029

 

7.583

 

4.797

 

1.470

 

0.110

 

 

 

Combined

 

3.8

 

15.706

 

55.09

 

33.78

 

10.00

 

1.13

 

2.094

 

1.284

 

0.380

 

0.043

 

8.653

 

5.306

 

1.570

 

0.177

 

 

 

Tailings

 

1.1

 

2.818

 

55.09

 

33.78

 

10.00

 

1.13

 

0.606

 

0.372

 

0.110

 

0.012

 

1.553

 

0.952

 

0.282

 

0.032

 

Mimosa

 

MSZ

 

3.5

 

2.030

 

49.71

 

39.27

 

4.33

 

6.69

 

1.740

 

1.374

 

0.152

 

0.234

 

1.009

 

0.797

 

0.088

 

0.136

 

Total operations

 

2.8

 

22.358

 

54.87

 

34.03

 

9.61

 

1.50

 

1.536

 

0.953

 

0.269

 

0.042

 

12.267

 

7.608

 

2.148

 

0.335

 

 

 

 

 

 

Totals

 

Prill Split %

 

Prill Split —
Grade (g/t)

 

Prill Split —
(Moz)

Mine

 

Reef

 

Grade (g/t)

 

Moz

 

Pt

 

Pd

 

Pt

 

Pd

 

Pt

 

Pd

 

Stillwater

 

JM

 

20.2

 

11.519

 

23.0

 

77.0

 

4.646

 

15.554

 

2.649

 

8.870

 

East Boulder

 

JM

 

13.4

 

10.384

 

23.0

 

77.0

 

3.082

 

10.318

 

2.388

 

7.996

 

Total operations

 

 

 

16.3

 

21.903

 

23.0

 

77.0

 

3.749

 

12.551

 

5.038

 

16.885

 

 

3.              Please revise to include reserve modifying factors including the cut-off grades and recovery factors associated with your 4E PGM reserves on page 261 and the mineral pricing and recovery factors associated with your 2E PGM reserves on page 263. In your response clarify if your 4E PGM and 2E PGM reserves are reported as mill delivered tons or other.

 

Response

 

The Company acknowledges the Staff’s comment. The Company respectfully submits that:

 

(i)                 With respect to the cut-off grades, the ore bodies are tabular and laterally continuous with relatively long range predictability indicating that there is insignificant variability to the ore types. Therefore, no cut-off grades are determined for the South African Merensky and UG2 ore bodies. The US region 2E PGM operations use a 6.8 g/t cut-off grade.

 

(ii)              With respect to the reporting of reserves, the Company compiles the Reserves and Resources in accordance with the South African Code for the Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves. Therefore, the reserves tons declared is that delivered to concentrator.

 

 

(iii)           The 2E PGM reserves used a platinum price of R14,251/oz (US$1,092/oz) and palladium price of R9,187/oz (US$704/oz) (at and exchange rate of R13.05/US$) when valuing the mineral reserve.  The prices used for reserves is the approximate three-year trailing average metal prices.

 

(iv)          With respect to the modifying factors, the following are the modifying factors for each of the Rustenburg, Kroondal, Mimosa and US PGM operations:

 

Rustenburg: Modifying factors (underground)

 

Parameter

 

Unit

 

Dec 2017

 

Dec 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Off-reef

 

%

 

3.07

 

3.96

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stope width

 

m

 

1.43

 

1.46

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scalping

 

%

 

3.29

 

3.37

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mine call factor

 

%

 

99.7

 

96.7

 

 

Kroondal: Modifying factors (underground)

 

Parameter

 

Unit

 

Dec 2017

 

Dec 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Off-reef

 

%

 

2.27

 

2.40

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stope width

 

m

 

2.29

 

2.33

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scalping

 

%

 

4.66

 

5.40

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mine call factor

 

%

 

93.0

 

95.0

 

 

Mimosa: Modifying factors (underground)

 

Parameter

 

Unit

 

Dec 2017

 

Dec 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mineral Reserve pay limit

 

g/t

 

2.7

 

3.0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mined value

 

g/t

 

3.6

 

3.6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mine call factor

 

%

 

93.4

 

91.9

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mining dilution

 

%

 

3.95

 

3.00

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stoping width

 

m

 

2.08

 

2.06

 

 

US PGM operations: Modifying factors (underground)

 

Parameter

 

Unit

 

Stillwater

 

East Boulder

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cut-off grade

 

g/t

 

6.8

 

6.8

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mine call factor

 

%

 

90.0

 

94.0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Concentrator recovery

 

%

 

92.2

 

90.8

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smelter/base metal refinery recovery

 

%

 

99.3

 

99.3

 

 

The Company respectfully submits that it will disclose such information in future filings.

 

*****

 

 

If Mr. Coleman or other members of the Staff have any questions regarding any of the above, they should feel free to contact the undersigned at +27 10 493 6908 or via e-mail at charl.keyter@sibanyestillwater.com. In the alternative, feel free to contact Thomas B. Shropshire Jr. (tel: +44 20 7456 3223; email: tom.shropshire@linklaters.com) or John Stone (tel: +44 20 7456 2677; email: john.stone@linklaters.com) of Linklaters LLP.

 

Sincerely

 

 

/s/ Charl Keyter

 

Charl Keyter

 

Chief Financial Officer

 

Sibanye Gold Limited

 

 

 

cc:                                Alicia Brink, Sibanye Gold Limited

Gerhard Van Vuuren, Sibanye Gold Limited

Andrew Brown, Sibanye Gold Limited

Brent Lamoure, Sibanye Gold Limited

Thomas B. Shropshire, Jr., Linklaters LLP

Henning Opperman, KPMG