Former Lily and Barbrook gold mine employees in Mpumalanga were given some festive relief this week when a company that has been struggling to buy and re-open the mines gave them food parcels.
Search and rescue teams at the collapsed Lily Mine on February 13, 2016 in Barberton, South Africa. Workers were retrenched after the entrance to the mine sank, trapping three workers underground, whose bodies have still not been retrieved. Photo: Felix Dlangamandla/Gallo Images
The wheel has turned in favour of a bidder who wants to acquire two Mpumalanga gold mines from an Australian company after the Mpumalanga High Court in Mbombela found that business rescue practitioners were wrong not to publish adopted business plans based on its offer.
Arqomanzi (Pty) Ltd turned to the court after business rescue practitioners of Lily and Barbrook Mines, Rob Devereux and Daniel Terblanche, decided against publishing business plans based on its R250 million offer. The pair instead opted to publish plans in favour of Australian company, Macquarie Metals, which bought 98% of Vantage Goldfields (VGO), the owner of the mines.
Another court battle is looming in the drawn-out business rescue process of Mpumalanga’s Lily and Barbrook gold mines after business rescue practitioner, Rob Devereux, was accused of doing a “180-degree turn” on publishing plans in favour of a company that has been waiting on the wings to buy the mines.
Arqomanzi appeared likely to acquire the mines from Australian company, Vantage Goldfields (VGO), after making a R250 million offer to Devereux, and becoming the major independent creditor of VGO’s subsidiary, Vantage Goldfields SA (VGSA), after convincing Standard Bank to cede VGSA’s loan of R389 million to the company.