By: OrePulse

African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), controlled by the Motsepe family, and Assore, controlled by the Sacco family, are now contesting each other in court over the running of Assmang, the manganese and iron ore joint venture the two mining groups have held in equal shares since 2006.

ARM disclosed the dispute in a stock exchange announcement on Tuesday, saying Assore had launched legal proceedings against ARM, Assmang and other unnamed parties. According to ARM's disclosure, Assore's claims center on ARM's right to appoint Assmang's senior management and run its day-to-day operations under the companies' shareholders' agreement, as well as on Assore's access to information and records related to the venture. Assore's mining interests span iron ore, manganese, chrome and industrial minerals.

ARM said its legal advice indicates that Assore's claims have no substantive merit. The company said it intends to defend the case and will bring its own proceedings against Assore, covering ARM's management rights at Assmang and the question of information access. ARM added that it needs information from Assore so that Assmang can meet its legal and regulatory obligations.

Pending the litigation, ARM said it would continue managing Assmang under its existing contractual rights and obligations. Representatives of the two shareholders remain in discussions about the business.

The dispute surfaces two decades into the ARM-Assore partnership. Assmang was created through a restructuring completed in 2006, when the company was delisted and the venture moved to equal ownership between the two groups, a change described at the time as intended to resolve years of disagreement between the two sides over how the venture was managed. Before the restructuring, ARM's predecessor, Avmin, ran the mines while Assore handled marketing; Assore has maintained that it also had input into mining decisions at the time.

Patrice Motsepe, who founded ARM, remains its non-executive chairman.

Assmang's ferrous division, which includes its iron ore operations, contributed R2.03 billion to ARM's headline earnings in the year to June 2026, down 42% from the prior year, a decline ARM attributed to weaker iron ore market conditions and lower sales volumes. The venture's main assets are the Khumani iron ore mine and the Nchwaning and Gloria manganese mines, all in South Africa's Northern Cape province.

Assmang has recently gone through restructuring that included the closure of its Cato Ridge ferromanganese smelter, the sale of its stake in Sakura Ferroalloys, a Malaysia-based business, to Assore, and the placement of the Beeshoek iron ore mine on care and maintenance after it lost its sales contract with ArcelorMittal South Africa. This move led to 622 permanent retrenchments.

ARM said the legal dispute does not concern Assmang's final dividend for the year to June 2026, and that talks between the two shareholders on the dividend's size and timing are continuing. ARM said it remains committed to maximizing shareholder payments. Assmang held R3.9 billion in cash and cash equivalents attributable to ARM at the end of June.