Sasol Limited
(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa)
(Registration number 1979/003231/06)
(ISIN: ZAE000006896)
Share codes:
JSE - SOL
NYSE - SSL
("Sasol")
Sasol Mining advances its broad-based BEE strategy
Sasol Mining, the wholly-owned coal mining business of Sasol Limited, today announced the
first phase implementation of its broad-based empowerment strategy through the formation
of Igoda Coal (Pty) Limited, an empowerment venture with Eyesizwe Coal, a black-owned
mining company.
As a result of this transaction the black economic empowerment (BEE) ownership
component in Sasol Mining now comprises an estimated 8%.
Sasol Mining today also announced that it will expedite plans to advance the second phase
of its broad-based BEE ownership strategy that will see it achieve about 20% BEE
shareholding by 2009 and full compliance with the Mining Charter’s target of 26% by 2014.
Sasol Mining’s future broad-based empowerment ventures will further assist operational
capacity building in the mining sector. Sasol Mining’s intention is to create a new,
sustainable BEE entity, which will be involved in selected mining operations. This entity will
preferably include an operational women’s group, as well as other broad-based
stakeholders.
Eyesizwe Coal’s operational expertise will also play an important role in helping Sasol
Mining further develop operational capacity-building with new BEE entrants.
Further announcements are expected this year. One of the first announcements will be at
Sasol Mining equity level.
“The Igoda Coal transaction is just the first phase of Sasol Mining’s empowerment
commitment to promote BEE in South Africa and supports the tenets and spirit of the Mining
Charter,” says Sasol CE Pat Davies.
The Igoda Coal transaction, which has been more than two years in the making, follows just
months after the announcement of the R1,5 billion Tshwarisano empowerment transaction in
Sasol’s liquid fuels business.
Igoda Coal comprises the full value chain of Sasol’s coal export mining business – the
Twistdraai Colliery and beneficiation plant at Secunda in Mpumalanga Province, the
marketing and logistics components of its coal export business, as well as Sasol Mining’s
5% shareholding in Richards Bay Coal Terminal.
Igoda Coal, worth almost R1,4 billion, will be one of South Africa’s largest empowered coal
export companies. Eyesizwe Coal owns 35% of the empowerment venture, while Sasol
Mining holds the remaining 65%. The company will mine, beneficiate, market and supply
utility coal for the international export market. It will produce a minimum export production
of 3,6 million tons per annum (Mtpa) and will supply approximately 4 Mtpa of middlings coal
to Sasol Synfuels at Secunda, the world’s sole commercial producer of fuel components and