Municipality owed R300m

RANDLORD Holdings, a new mining and management company, hopes to bring Blyvoor back to life by 2017.

This despite more than R300million the previous owners still owe to the municipality for services. Although Sowetan could not reach any of Randlord’s five partners yesterday, the company’s website shed some light on the R170-million investment that it has made since it acquired the mine from its previous owners.

Randlord is made up of executive directors Richard Floyd, Karel Potgieter, Bastiat Viljoen, Dane Viljoen and seasoned mining entrepreneur Peter Skeat who chairs the company.

The company has been active at Blyvooruitzicht since December when it acquired the metallurgical plant and last month it finalised the agreement papers to buy Shaft 5, the last shaft to be in production before the mine closure in 2013.

“Randlord is in the process of re-establishing the infrastructure and services that were significantly damaged by illegal miners,” their website reads.

The company said it would start its underground operation in 2017.

Meanwhile, Merafong municipality spokesman Chris Spies said the mining village was not their responsibility and that it currently “consumes water at a rate of between R2-million and R4-million monthly, without any payment to the Merafong City”.

“The outstanding municipal account for the mine is well over R300-million,” Spies said.