Miranda share trade suspended

SHARES in coal and minerals company Miranda Mineral Holdings were suspended from trade on the JSE on Tuesday as it could no longer meet its obligations.

The shares were suspended at 4c but they have been sliding steadily since February, when they were 17c. Their all-time peak was 298c in May 2008.

The company also announced the resignation of MD John Wallington, formerly head of Anglo American Coal and CEO of Coal of Africa, brought in a year ago to help develop Miranda’s coal assets. In the past month three nonexecutive directors and one executive director, Michael Cook, have also resigned.

Miranda said it had been determined that the company was “financially distressed, has effectively ceased to do business and can no longer meet its obligations”. One of the options the board was considering was business rescue proceedings.

Mr Wallington said he joined the company on the understanding that funds would be raised to enable Miranda to grow.

That funding was never forthcoming. He had not been paid a salary since January and he had lent money to the company to keep it going.

Miranda’s last published financial results for the six months to February showed it held only R231,266 in available cash and had an accumulated loss of R157.3m, though it had a positive net tangible asset value of 1.78c a share. It said it had a monthly cash burn of R1.2m-R1.5m a month, including directors’ remuneration, but the directors would support the company through loans or deferral of fees until it was successful in raising funds through a share issue.

The share issue would have enabled Miranda to participate as a 50% partner in the purchase of Benicon Coal, owners of 60% of the Nkomati anthracite mine.

But in August Miranda said the share issue would not go ahead and that it would be unable to participate in the Benicon Coal acquisition.