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# The Saccos and the Motsepes have shared Assmang for 20 years, and now they are going to court over it
- URL: https://www.businessbagel.com/assore-arm-assmang-court-saccos-motsepes/
- Published: 2026-10-16T02:30:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-16T02:29:59.000Z
- Description: Assore is suing African Rainbow Minerals over who appoints Assmang's managers, in a year when the iron ore and manganese business made ARM a lot less money.
- Author: Christian Maidman
- Tags: Companies, Business Bagel News

Assmang was turned into a 50/50 venture in 2006 to end years of arguing over how it was run. On Tuesday the argument went to court. Assore, the miner controlled by the Sacco family, has launched proceedings against African Rainbow Minerals, the mining group controlled by the Motsepe family, and against Assmang itself.

The fight is over who does what inside a business that digs iron ore at Khumani and manganese at Nchwaning and Gloria in the Northern Cape, where its Black Rock operation sits on the world's biggest land-based deposit of high-grade manganese. Before 2006 the two sides split the work by trade: ARM's predecessor, Avmin, ran the mines and Assore did the marketing, although Assore always maintained it had a say in mining decisions too. Under the shareholders' agreement that came after, ARM appoints Assmang's senior managers and runs its operations, and that is the part Assore is now challenging.

## What each side wants from the judge

News24 reports that Assore is asking the court to restore the agreed balance of power, and to undo decisions ARM pushed through at Assmang that Assore believes break their governance agreement. ARM says that, on legal advice, the claims have no substantive merit. It will defend the case and bring its own against Assore, partly over information it says Assmang needs from Assore to meet its legal and regulatory obligations. In the meantime, ARM says, it will keep managing Assmang according to its contractual rights. Assore says it still wants to settle amicably, but will defend any "retaliatory proceedings" ARM brings.

## A partnership that is earning less

The timing is awkward. Assmang's ferrous division, the iron ore and manganese side, contributed R2.03 billion to ARM's headline earnings in the year to June, 42% less than a year earlier, as iron ore weakened and sales fell. The dividends ARM collected from Assmang shrank by about a quarter, to R3.4 billion.

The business has been getting smaller in other ways too. It closed the Cato Ridge smelter, and sold its stake in Malaysia's Sakura Ferroalloys to Assore, the same partner now taking it to court. Late last year it put the Beeshoek iron ore mine on care and maintenance after losing sales to ArcelorMittal South Africa, and 622 permanent employees lost their jobs.

Both sides insist the case has nothing to do with the dividend. ARM says no claim in the summons touches how much is paid or when, and the two shareholders are still working out Assmang's final payout for the year to June, from a business holding R3.9 billion of cash attributable to ARM at the end of June. So the two families are settling how much cash to take out of Assmang in one room, and fighting over who runs it in another.