Kumvest still wants a piece of Tau Lekoa
Offers to partner bid winner
KUMVEST, a black-owned investment company that made a bid to acquire Village Main Reef ’s Tau Lekoa mine in Klerksdorp, wants to partner with Chinese-owned investment company Heaven-Sent, which won the bid, to develop the mine.
The company expressed interest to acquire the Tau Lekoa mine despite the completion of a R634 million deal, in which Heaven-Sent offered to acquire Village’s entire share capital at R12.25 a share. Village shareholders voted in favour of the deal last month.
Kumvest owner Mandla “Bear” Khumalo said it had approached Heaven-Sent with a partnership offer after the Village board had turned Kumvest down.
“This is their (Heaven-Sent) asset, and we are not disrupting the process. Heaven-Sent said to us they want to wait out the process, and they will talk to us in due course,” he said.
Village chief executive Ferdi Dippenaar said the deal was closed. “All the approvals have been granted and as the transaction has become unconditional, Heaven-Sent will now proceed with paying shareholders for their shares on June 1.”
Heaven-Sent was not available for comment.
Village has closed its Buffelsfontein mine and Cons Murch, the antimony and gold mine in Limpopo, which was placed under business rescue.
While many gold producers are barely breaking even as they struggle with rising labour and power costs, Khumalo said he was confident in the industry.
“The environment is perfect for operators because of legislation. For us labour is not a problem… (Labour) has a right to ask for increases,” he said.
While major gold producers were in talks with various Asian groups to dispose of local assets, Khumalo said he had confidence in the regulatory regime in general and the current minister in particular.
Khumalo does not want to be compared with the politically connected Aurora Empowerment Systems company, which won the bid to operate the liquidated Pamodzi Gold’s mines, Orkney and Grootvlei.
“There are thousands of Australian and Chinese gold companies that are not doing well in South Africa,” he said.
In a statement last week, he said he believed that the company’s shareholders would welcome an offer to keep the mine South African-owned and managed. About 2 000 jobs could be created in the mine, Khumalo added.
“The people of Klerksdorp have watched the alarming decline of their town as a mining haven. Among other things this was caused by unsustainable mining practices over at least the last 15 years… The area has seen 28 fully operational gold mining shafts being reduced to four.”
Village shares on the JSE were up 0.16 percent to close at R12.17 yesterday.