Johannesburg - Aquarius Platinum CEO Stuart Murray has denied speculation reported in UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph that Aquarius and Impala Platinum (Implats) had been in talks over launching a bid for Lonmin.

"I can assure you that nothing like what the Daily Telegraph is speculating about is going on," Murray told Miningmx.

Lonmin currently faces a $10bn hostile bid from Xstrata which it has rejected out of hand.

According to Lonmin chairperson John Craven, "This opportunistic proposal is an attempt to acquire Lonmin's assets cheaply and capitalise on the expected improvement in our mining and processing performance."

Despite this, the Lonmin share price has been trading just above the Xstrata offer price of £33 a share and currently sits at £34.26.

Suggestion from one market source is that Lonmin itself may have started the speculation over a rival bid from Aquarius and Implats in an attempt to boost its share price.

There has also been ongoing speculation over possible merger and acquisition by Aquarius itself, in particular with regard to Northam Platinum's Booysendal property which is contiguous with Aquarius' operating Everest South Mine.

Asked about this when Northam released its year-end results yesterday, CEO Glyn Lewis commented, "Tell Stuart Murray to put something on the table."

Murray today declined to respond to Lewis' comment other than to repeat what he said on August 7 when Aquarius published its annual results.

"I believe that opportunities in the platinum sector have never been more interesting, even if the operating (environment) remains challenging," he said at the time.

- MiningMX.com

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