MHQ: So, give our listeners an overview of the company and the key projects in the Bushveld Complex of South Africa.

PL: Nkwe currently has one main project. For those of you that don’t know, the Bushveld Complex in South Africa contains about 80 percent of the world's known platinum reserves. If you went below to 5,000 meters you'd find that Bushveld holds about 99 percent of all PGMs in the world. Recently, significant legislative changes saw historically disadvantaged groups in South Africa being able to participate in both the exploration and development of minerals where the mining majors basically had to relinquish large tracks of land to enable quick development. As a result, Nkwe acquired five of what we would see as one of the most prestigious PGM properties in the world yet to be exploited to date. With approximately 40 million ounces of high grade JORC resources to date, with independently assessed potential to go to 100 million. More importantly, we have already signed up Xstrata as our joint venture partner to basically have an option to come and develop and fund two mines and a concentrator to ensure the five farms come into production in the targeted production rate of a million ounces of PGM per annum, which would put it in the top four PGM mines in the world.
 

MHQ: Give us a better feel about the current political climate within these regions in South Africa as it pertains to drilling, exploration, etc.
 

PL: South Africa has had a very comprehensive and consolidated mining regime for a number of decades. More importantly, many major mining houses in the world operate in South Africa. The major upheaval came with the MPDA Act in 2004. We're very comfortable with South Africa as an operating environment, and as I said, from a regulatory point of view it's probably one of most advanced exploration and development regions in the world.

MHQ: So, here Nkwe just upgraded its resource by 88 percent, so 38.4. Give us an overview of this most recent announcement.
 

PL: I mean, it's funny. For us having been involved in a number of resource projects the resource upgrade to 38 – 40 million ounces for us it was expected. Unlike other projects around the world, what people need to understand is that the Bushveld Complex is a series of layered reefs. So, you don’t expect the PGMs not to be there. Drilling does and aeromagnetics assist in determining how significant potential faulting, potential deformities in a property are. Thankfully, with our properties to date the reefs have shown themselves to be behaving very well. So, for us the 40 million ounces was definitely anticipated. As I said previously, with our independent assessment, if you were to drill out the entire five properties you would be looking at (in our opinion) over 100 million PGM ounces, but the 40 million to date which has been delineated already supports a mine development and production life of over 50 years. So, as a starting point we're very comfortable with the recent upgrade.
 

MHQ: Give us an overview of the balance of this board and management team in place at Nkwe Platinum.
 

PL: Nkwe’s Black Economic partners, Genorah who are our major shareholder have the majority of the representation on the board. More importantly, Mr Maredi Mphahlele the manage director is quite unique being a mining engineer himself, having gone through both the Anglo, DeBeers and IDC system in South Africa, which places him in a very unique situation of being the representative of the Black Economic Empowerment group and also probably has very few peers in his position. So, with Maredi there and Genorah representatives, obviously myself from a corporate background and Tony Weber and Andre van der Merwe also having an extensive technical background we think we've got a very good blend for all the ingredients that are required in South Africa from BEE representation, technical representation and on the corporate side.
MHQ: So, now Nkwe is combined in one joint venture. Is the company open to any other joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions moving forward?
PL: Not with its flagship project. I mean, its flagship project which is the Garatau Project in the north and the Tubatse Project in the south we are committed to going down the Xstrata joint venture path at this stage and especially where their option enables them to finance all capital expenditure required for the development of two mines and a concentrate, which at this stage would potentially see Xstrata spending up to $1.5 billion. We're comfortable with Xstrata as our joint venture partner on our main project. However, on the other properties, given especially the state of the world markets, I think it's fair to say you will definitely see further consolidation in the PGM industry and throughout the mining industry, and I believe Nkwe is very well positioned to participate in some of the significant consolidation that will happen moving forward. It's not just, the Xstrata joint venture, but there are other opportunities that we believe will see NKWE participating both on the Eastern and potentially the Western Limbs of the Bushveld over the next 12 months.

MHQ: Where do you see Nkwe Platinum positioned in a two- to three-year period?
 

PL: When we want to say positioned it's basically having commenced development, if not production of what we would see as a top five PGM mining operation in the world with Xstrata as our joint venture partner and in the ramp-up phase of leading to ultimately producing a million ounces of PGM per annum, a key to understanding the Xstrata joint venture, is Nkwe retains control of the smelting and refining side, whether we do it jointly with Xstrata, which is the logical choice at this stage, but we basically will own the end product, as opposed to simply selling a concentrate. And for us having the ability to participate through to end metal gives us clear and significant strategic advantages to any other mid-tier PGM, advanced explorer / producers in the world today.
 

MHQ: All right. So, then Mr. Peter Landau, how will then an American investor be able to get involved with Nkwe Platinum?
 

PL: Nkwe shares are now quoted on the Over-The-Counter market in the US in the form of American Depositary Shares under the symbol NKWEY. It's an instrument that allows any American investors to participate in equity ownership in Nkwe through buying an equity instrument in the U.S. on an ADR program, which effectively then translates to an equity instrument on our stocks in Australia.
 

MHQ: So, in conclusion, why should investors look to consider the company a long-term investment opportunity?
 

PL: As with anything it's the value proposition. Especially today, in today's world, obviously, stocks across the board in particular the PGMs are now being hit over 50 to 90 percent over the last few weeks. If you take our market capitalization today and then look at what we could be capitalized at, with a DCF or an NPV valuation on the Xstrata joint venture moving forward, obviously the potential for multiple increases at 5, 10 and 20 times is significant. Clearly there are risks, and we don’t run away from those risks. In terms of where PGM prices we're comfortable with the 5 to 15-year horizon, even after what's happened over the last few months. So, people will always discount, but even discounting what the potential for Nkwe is coming backwards, we still think the upside for anyone who's looking at a two- to three-year horizon it's probably one of the best value propositions in the advanced exploration early production stage in both Africa, Australia and other places.