News

March 23, 2009

The Decline And Possible Rise And Reinvention Of Jubilee Platinum

By Alastair Ford

It’s amazing how different the world is looking to some people these days. The credit crunch has decimated the valuations not only of the froth and dross that hit the market at the height of the boom, but also those of once-stalwart and respectable junior miners like Jubilee Platinum. “If you go back two years”, says a rueful Colin Bird, “we had a market capitalization of over £100 million, on eight boreholes”. As chief executive of Jubilee Platinum, Colin now has much to ponder, because - in a stark demonstration of just how unforgiving the market has been as regards some of its smaller constituents - his company now has a market capitalization of just £8.3 million.

And Jubilee hasn’t been standing still in the intervening period either. On the flagship Tjate property on the prolific Bushveld in South Africa, the company now has 42 boreholes to its name, more than five times the amount of drill holes that it had when the company’s shares were soaring away at well over 120p back in 2007. That drilling, says Colin, has all gone towards demonstrating that Jubilee has “the best part of 80 million ounces in the ground”. And there’s probably more to come: as...