JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Shuka Minerals, which is primarily listed on the alternative investment market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), on Wednesday sealed a secondary listing on the alternative exchange of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

“It's exciting to bring Shuka Minerals to the JSE,” an upbeat Shuka CEO Richard Lloyd exclaimed as he and Shuka director Edu Ruheni beat the African drum with great gusto, ahead of a high-premium early share purchase bid being flashed across the big JSE trading screen. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

The JSE, which has been in operation for 137 years, is currently ranked in the Top 20 largest stock exchanges in the world by market capitalisation.

Newly listed Shuka, which is immersed in the development and operation of mineral assets, currently operates a coal project in Tanzania, and is finalising the purchase of a lead, zinc, silver and vanadium mine in Zambia, the Kabwe mine.

“We’re going to redevelop that,” Lloyd declared at the high-spirited event, covered by Mining Weekly.

Previously operated by Anglo American and Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines, Kabwe was mined for 88 years before being closed in 1994 during a period of low commodity prices.

“It’s a matter of understanding the geology,” said Lloyd, who has a geologist background.

“We’ll need to dewater various pits. We need to be very careful of what we do with it, so the ESG and the corporate and social responsibility side of things is paramount. It probably wasn’t in 1904 when it first opened.

“We are going to have to be careful when we work with the communities up there, but we’ve met with the District Commissioner, all the people there, and everybody’s absolutely excited about the future of Kabwe.

“The town grew up on Kabwe and everybody’s eager to get back to work, get their jobs back, dewater the pits and get going, and bring it back to its former glory,” Lloyd added.

JSE origination and deals head Sam Mokorosi spoke of the listing not only being a corporate milestone but also a reflection of the vision to transform natural resources into shared prosperity – and to do so with deep respect for the people of Africa.

In pointing out that the JSE’s 278 listed companies have a combined market capitalisation of R20-trillion-plus, Mokorosi highlighted the exchange’s fast-track listing process, from which Shuka benefitted.

Last year, the JSE expanded its fast-track universe allowing secondary listings for companies primarily listed on 14 international exchanges including the LSE, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd and New York Stock Exchange.

The JSE's fast-track listing route offers an expedited approval process, reduced listing fees and minimises the resource requirements typically associated with a pre-listing statement. This forms part of the JSE's ongoing efforts to enhance accessibility and efficiency for international companies.

JSE capital markets director Valdene Reddy spoke of the listing reflecting the success of ongoing efforts to create a more enabling regulatory environment and broaden the range of investment opportunities available on the exchange.

JSE trading operations head Martin Koch provided a live demonstration of the technology prowess of the JSE’s 9 am to 5 pm trading day, which takes in a staggering 20-milllion-plus orders a day, which translates into 300 to 500 orders every second.

“If you blink for 300 milliseconds, we would have sent that order to London and back and then to London again,” Koch told the audience.