Communities in Steelpoort have found a partner to mine platinum in the South African town after they won the right to resources on ancestral lands, it has been reported.

Nkwe Platinum is to be granted a 30 per cent stake in the 20 million-ounce project in return for funding and skills to develop the scheme, according to Independent Online.

The news provider reports that Nkwe will become the strategic partner in the Limpopo operation through its majority shareholder Genorah Resources.

It follows the award of prospecting mining rights to the Roka Phasha and Bengwenyama Yama Swati communities by South Africa's Department of Mineral Resources.

Sizani Nkosi, a member of the Bengwenyama Yama Swati Royal Tribal Council, told the news provider: "In the application by Genorah, the communities had been promised a stake of between five per cent and ten per cent of the operations.

"Now the shareholding has moved to 70 percent, Genorah will own 30 percent. We are happy now."

Australian-listed Nkwe Platinum's main assets are the Tubatse and Garatau projects, which are underlain by both the Merensky Reef and the UG2 chromitite seam.

It plans to develop two mines with a combined annual production of more than one million ounces of platinum group metals.

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Limpopo communities partner to mine platinum (26/04/11) 

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