Thanx Daw30 Nov 2013 14:49
Apologies for any typos - all typed by hand!!
A Pretoria-based mining company, Harambee Gily, has offered R434-million to revive the mothballed Elitheni coal mine at Indwe and pay off all its creditors.
A letter of funding support from the company is contained in annexures to an urgent application before the Port Elizabeth High Court in which creditors are seeking to provisionally wind up Elitheni Coal, the company that currently holds the mining rights.
Harambee Gily director Gift Selekisho signed the letter of funding support.
Managing director William Harry Larkins of Mineral Resource Development (MRD) – one of the creditor companies seeking to wind up Eletheni Coal – says in an affidavit it is a genuine investment opportunity available locally and on an unconditional basis.
The offer, he said, includes recapitalising the mine with all the necessary equipment to develop a steady state of production of 100 kilotons per month.
It would provide sufficient working capital for the next 24 months, create meaningful employment and meet social and labour commitments to uplift the local community. It would also ensure a meaningful level of broader community ownership in the mine of at least 25%.
Larkins said it was urgent that Eletheni Coal be provisionally wound up as the Department of Mineral Resources had informed him the company was in the process of transferring the mineral right, Eletheni’s only asset, a move that would prejudice its creditors. A provisional liquidator would preserve the right for the benefit of the greater body of creditors.
The department and other creditors allege they are owed some R12-million by the ill-fated company. Court documents reveal that coal mining at the Eletheni coal mine in Indwe stopped in September, just days after its first shipment of coal.
More than 180 employees lost their jobs, 62% of them Indwe residents. Larkins claims in his affidavit in support of the provisional winding up, that the department, which has since December last year rendered remedial consulting, engineering and coal washing services to Eletheni, is owed some R4.9-million.
It is also claimed that Eletheni Coal also owes Isiqhalo Supply Chain Management R6.25-million for transporting coal, and Specialised Petroleum Products R700 000 for diesel. Larkins casts doubts over media reports that Elitheni’s empowerment shareholder Rapitrade 644 had bailed it out to the tune of R15-million.
Rapitrade 644 is headed by ANC chief whip Stone Sizani. Irishman Niall Mellon has also admitted he is closely associated with Rapitrade 644.
The Dispatch revealed last week that Rapitrade 644’s R15-million loan came with the caveat that if not repaid it would be turned into a further 10% shareholding.
Larkins points out that Rapitrade 644 owed Strategic Natural Resources PLC subsidiary Acharnian Mining about R11-million which it had loaned to the empowerment company. Mellon had also
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