MC Mining pays top staff more than R25.32m as losses narrow

MC MINING, the JSE-listed junior coal producer formerly known as Coal of Africa, said yesterday that it remunerated its directors and key management personnel by more than $1.67 million (R25.32m) in the year to June as operating losses narrowed.

The company said in its consolidated financial statements for the year to June 30 that it paid chief executive David Brown $929 604, which included a salary and fees of $440 851, a bonus of $209 474 and share-based payments of $279 279.

Chief financial officer Brenda Berlin took home a total of $484 722, which included salary and fees of $377 336, a bonus of $58 751 and $48 635 in share-based payments, the company said.

In 2018, Brown received a total package of $963 037 and Berlin, who was appointed in April 2018, received $131 270.

The group said it was confident it would have sufficient cash flow to fund its operations for at least 12 months on cash flow forecasts, including a draw down of the new $17.3m Industrial Development Corporation term loan facility that was conditionally approved subsequent to year-end.

The company said it would raise an additional $35m through a combination of debt, equity and other funding to repay debt and develop Makhado.

MC Mining said the development of Phase 1 of its flagship Makhado project would start within the 12 months following the signing of the financial statements.

“The consolidated

entity’s

ability to continue as a going concern beyond the 12 months following the signing of these financial statements is dependent on the successful development of Phase 1 of the Makhado project and its subsequent ramp-up to planned levels of production,” it said.

The company reported that its operating loss before interest had decreased by 69 percent to $28.9m from $94.6m the prior year.

The loss after tax from continuing operations narrowed to $33.7m from $103.76m a year earlier, when the company suffered an $87m impairment of Vele Colliery in Limpopo.

The loss included a non-cash net impairment of $21m, mainly related to the impairment of Australian dollar payments made by the group in 2007 for the acquisition of two new-order prospecting rights, which have been incorporated into the Makhado new-order mining right.

MC Mining chief executive David Brown said the company aimed to become a top South African hard coking coal producer.

MC Mining fell 2.3 percent on the JSE yesterday to close at R5.95.