Snag causes delay in loan transfer

CENTRAL Rand Gold said yesterday that the transfer of the second tranche of $500 000 (R6.6 million) of the $1m loan agreement with one of its shareholders, Jia Bang Wang, had been delayed due to certain exchange restrictions. In January, the struggling mining company entered into a new loan agreement with Wang for funding in the amount of $1m in a bid to resume its underground operations. Wang already owns 9.48 percent shareholding at Central Rand Gold. The miner said 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. De-watering has prevented the company from restarting any underground mining operations since they were halted in 2014. After securing the loan agreement, Central Rand Gold in February 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. Despite the setback of the second tranche of funding, the miner said it continued to work on executing the strategy of installing centrifugal concentrators, with the anticipated date of commissioning still the third quarter of 2017. “As previously announced, the concentrator equipment has been ordered from China, and the company is pleased to announce that the equipment has now been manufactured. Delivery to South Africa is expected to occur in mid-June 2017,” the miner said. “The open pit mining which started at the beginning of last month, is continuing, and materials have been delivered to the plant for crushing, prior to processing. Third party batch toll treatment materials are also being fed to the plant.” – ANA