Impala Platinum, South Africa's second-largest platinum producer, is due to discover the result of its bid to minority shareholders in Zimbabwe Platinum Mines by Wednesday or Thursday, after its offer timed out on Friday the 29th.

Implats financial director David Brown said over the weekend that his company had secured just under 73 per cent of Zimplats' issued share capital at the close of trade in Australia on Friday.

Acceptances notified by post, he said, would take some days to arrive and then be added to the figures.

The position of Barbican Holdings, the Zimbabwean financial services group that made a hostile bid in opposition to Implats, is now unclear: it was only expected to make a formal bid after that of Implats had closed.

Further expansion into Zimbabwe would be a positive move for Impala, which would benefit from the reduced operational costs represented by the shallower levels at which platinum is found in the country.

A definitive explanation for Barbican's interest is less readily available, although it seems likely that its CEO Mthuli Ncube is attracted, despite export problems, by the high value of platinum and the general prospect of a presence on the Australian Stock Exchange.