Central Rand Gold: $1m loan
New agreement for funding will help underground mining operations
CENTRAL Rand Gold announced yesterday that it had entered into a new loan agreement with one of its shareholders, Jia Bang Wang, for funding in the amount of US$1 million (R13 674 200) in a bid to resume its underground operations.
Wang owns 9.48 percent shareholding at Central Rand Gold. The struggling Joburg mining company said the loan would be provided in two tranches, with the first tranche of US$500000 having already been received by the company and a further US$500 000 becoming available on or by March 31.
Central Rand Gold Limited is engaged in a gold mining and exploration project with an aim to bring profitable and sustainable gold mining back to the City of Joburg.
De-watering has, however, prevented the company from restarting any underground mining operations since they were halted in 2014.
Yesterday, the board of Central Rand Gold said it believed that the loan would provide the company with sufficient working capital for the immediate future and for the procurement, shipping, instalment and commissioning of a concentrator circuit.
Last year, the gold miner executed an agreement to acquire mine waste dumps that contained 2.3 million tons of gold-bearing materials. The company then resolved to procure a concentrator circuit to upgrade the gold grade of the mine waste dumps materials before further metallurgical processing.
The concentrator circuit will contain centrifugal concentrators, a scrubber, de-watering screens, water/slurry pumps and other ancillary equipment.
The board, which is in negotiations with the concentrator circuit’s manufacturers, said it anticipated that it would be in a position to start placing orders for the equipment this quarter, thus allowing for shipment and installation by the second quarter of 2017.
Meanwhile, Central Rand Gold announced the appointment of two members to join its board following the resignation of some senior members last year.
Simon Charles, a head of Equity Capital Markets team and a senior partner in a firm of solicitors, Marriott Harrison LLP, has joined the board as the independent non-executive chairman with immediate effect.
Joining him would be Lola Trollip, acting chief executive and managing director of Central Rand Gold Netherlands Antilles, who joined the board as chief executive with immediate effect as well.
Charles said he was delighted to be joining the board of Central Rand Gold at this key stage of its development, saying that Trollip had considerable expertise and “grip” in operations.
“Together with the other directors, in the light of the additional capital and the concentrator circuit proposed to come on stream this year, we are confident that the company is now well positioned to implement its core strategy of generating revenue from our assets and delivering meaningful returns for our shareholders,” Charles said.
The company also appointed ZAI Corporate Finance Limited as its nominated adviser and broker with immediate effect.