Patrice Motsepe through his company African Rainbow Minerals is said to be one of the leading investors who are interested in acquiring BCL’s most treasured asset – the multibillion smelter. Recently BCL liquidator Nigel Dixon revealed that all the BCL Enterprises were fatally insolvent. Interest is said to be on the BCL Mine Smelter which was recently refurbished at the tune of over P700 million. It has an estimated value of between US$2 billion and US$3 billion and capacity to treat up to 850 000mt of nickel/copper concentrates per annum. One of the reasons BCL embarked on POLARIS II and acquired copper/nickel mines in the region was to maximise the use of the smelter which is the biggest in the region. Before the closure of the mine, BCL smelter used to treat nickel/copper concentrates across the region including from Nkomati but was still operating below its capacity. Motsepe is the founder of African Rainbow Minerals – the major shareholder of Nkomati Mine, one of the largest nickel reserves in South Africa having estimated reserves of 408.6 million tonnes of ore grading 0.33% nickel. Motsepe – the executive chairman of ARM – revealed last year that they are planning to sell…