Braemore developed into its current form through two important acquisitions in Australia and South Africa. In July 2005, through an exchange of shares, Braemore acquired all of the issued capital of Western Consolidated Nickel (WCN) Pty Ltd from Atomaer Holdings Pty Ltd.

Through this wholly-owned subsidiary, now known as Braemore Nickel, Braemore has rights to conduct pilot-plant test work and to complete a definitive feasibility study on the reclamation and processing of sulphide nickel tailings at BHP Billiton’s (BHPB) nickel operations in Leinster, Kambalda and Mt Keith in Western Australia. The nickel operations were originally established by Western Mining Corporation (WMC), now part of BHPB, in the 1960s and now collectively produce more than 100,000t of nickel per year.

In South Africa, Independence Platinum Limited (IPT) was initially formed for the purposes of evaluating, establishing and operating independent base-metal refining facilities. These facilities served to smelt and refine sulphide concentrates containing platinum group metals from emerging platinum producers in South Africa.

The acquisition of IPT arose from Braemore exercising its rights to acquire nickel rights from Atomaer Holdings under the Share Sale Agreement for the purchase of WCN in May 2005.

Braemore initially acquired 95% of IPT in December 2006 with a view to developing it as the first black-empowered independent PGM smelting and refining company. This subsequently increased to 100% in December 2007 to become the wholly-owned subsidiary, Braemore Platinum Smelters.