In a busier day for corporate news, junior miner Orion rocketed after it said recent test drilling brought up the highest-grade copper result in SA for decades, while Curro named Themba Baloyi as its next chair. In international news, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed it won't issue a broader alert about Benylin paediatric Syrup in Africa, given a seemingly contaminated batch is no longer on the market and has been consumed with no apparent reports of adverse effects.
Orion Minerals, a junior miner and developer of copper projects in the Northern Cape, said on Monday the initial results from drilling at Flat Mine East, part of the Okiep Copper Project, resulted in the highest-grade drill intercept ever reported at Flat Mines. It also confirms the high-grade copper intercepts returned from drilling completed in 1995 by the previous owners, Goldfields. "This standout intercept is one of the highest-grade intercepts reported in South Africa for the past 40 years," MD and CEO Errol Smart said in a statement. "For me as a geologist, this underscores the huge potential of Orion's 641km² mineral right holdings, which contain literally hundreds of mapped, outcropping mineralised bodies. Previous owners Newmont and Goldfields, intersected strong copper mineralisation in dozens of bodies with scout drilling but never completed drilling out the discoveries, due to low copper prices at the time, which resulted in management decisions to curtail exploration." Valued at about R1.1 billion on the JSE as of Monday's open, Orion's shares surged more than 30%.
Private school group Curro announced that it has named Themba Baloyi, an independent non-executive director of Curro, as chair-elect to succeed Santie Botha, with effect from the conclusion of the AGM on 12 June. Baloyi has been an independent non-executive director of the company since November 2020. Baloyi studied and completed cost and management accounting, corporate governance through ICSA and has an executive MBA from Henley Business School in the UK. Baloyi also founded Discovery Insure, a short-term insurance company launched in 2011, with this work propelling him to win the 2018 CNBC Africa All Africa Business Leaders 'Entrepreneur of the Year Award'.