How do you value a technology that could rescue South Africa’s mining economy? The nation has long been the world’s largest producer of platinum and chrome — but the industry has been hit hard by plunging metals prices and the growing cost of digging ever-deeper mines to reach the last pockets of high-quality ore.

One answer would be to mine the more abundant, lower-grade seams, if only a low-cost way could be found to smelt out the extra impurities. Braemore Resources believed that it had the answer with a process known as ConRoast, to which it has the licence. But it has no cash to scale up its prototype furnace in Johannesburg. It was in talks for months with Ruukki, the Finnish smelting company, but those talks ended this week because the pair could not agree a valuation of the technology. On Friday Braemore succumbed to an all-share offer from Jubilee Platinum. Braemore fell 1.31p to 3.05p because the offer values it at only 3.29p a share.

Finncap, broker to both, said that the discount was justified because Jubilee must raise $100 million (£61 million) to build a commercial ConRoast smelter. It also needs cash to develop its untapped Tjate platinum resource. Jubilee slid 1½p to 44p. Ruukki and Sylvania, a chrome producer which was its merger partner, up ¼p to 80p, still need to find a technology to smelt platinum.

Volvere, the buyer of distressed businesses chaired by Lord Kalms, soared 65p to 265p as it sold its Sira testing and certification business for £8.6 million — six times the price it paid four years ago — meaning it has £20 million for further acquisitions.

BGlobal, the smart meter provider, soared 3.88p to 12.67p after securing a £15 million loan.

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