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COMMERCIALACTIVITIESMintek’s commercial activities comprise participation in operatingcompanies and joint ventures, sales of equipment and technology licensingagreements. Mintek also actively promotes the establishment of mineralbaseddevelopment projects that could utilise its technologies.PARTICIPATION IN OPERATING COMPANIESMindev (Pty) Ltd. (Mindev) is a wholly owned local holding company thatwas established by Mintek in 2002 to support the commercialisation of itstechnologies via partnerships in operating business ventures.Mogale Alloys (Pty) Ltd. was formed in2003 to recover nickel and chromiumfrom furnace dust produced by ColumbusStainless at Middelburg, using the DCarc furnace at Samancor Ferrochrome’sKrugersdorp facility. During the periodunder review, Mindev concluded the saleof its 25 per cent interest in Mogale anda licence agreement for the DC smeltingtechnology to PGR 17 Investments (Pty)Ltd., the existing management team,for a total consideration of R43.15from the premium that the remainingshareholders were prepared topay in order to gain control of thecompany.Mindev is in the processof divesting its 25 per centshareholding in TollSort (Pty) Ltd., to MikroSort (Pty) Ltd. thevendors of the optical sorting technology, following a decisionbeen made in the optical sorting of low-grade gold, PGM, andother ores, it was decided that the additional investment andtime required to fully develop the technology to a point where itunacceptably high risk.MINTEK BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PROJECTSMintek’s Business Development group is pursuing severalopportunities for commercialisation of the organisation’sintellectual property.“Several independentanalyses have concludedthat, depending on theimplementation of smelterexpansions by the majorproducers and the numberof new PGM projects thatcome on stream, the SouthAfrican PGM sector willrequire additional smeltingcapacity within the next”Independence ConRoast PGM ProjectIn June 2006, Mintek and Independence Platinum Ltd. (IPt), asubsidiary of Braemore Resources plc, entered into an exclusiveagreement for the commercial development and implementationof the ConRoast process. In terms of the agreement, IPt will fund aMain pic:TappingPGM-bearingalloy duringa Consmeltcampaign.31annual report 2007