VP’s intervention sought in Mupane saga
Mbongeni Mguni - Sharon Mathala - Oarabile Mosikare | Wednesday July 23, 2025 10:19
Mupane Gold Mine, the country’s sole gold operation, closed in March 2024 and entered final liquidation in February. But the liquidator has since received offers at an auction held in mid-June, with creditors due to vote on the proposal they prefer.
Ahead of this process, however, media reports have emerged suggesting one of the bidders in particular enjoys political connections at the highest level and could be an influence on the liquidator handling the sale.
Creditors were due to assess the offers and possibly vote on their preferred bidder last Friday, but the government, the single largest creditor, asked for the meeting to be postponed, citing insufficient time between the notification of the meeting and the meeting itself.
Mmegi has established that as the bidding war intensifies and plays out on social media, Vice President, Ndaba Gaolathe, was called upon this week to lend a hand in ensuring that fairness prevails.
“At the meeting, the issues and concerns were put to the Vice President and the call was for fairness to prevail, which is something he said he will make sure was done,” an insider told Mmegi yesterday.
The Ministry of Minerals and Energy, meanwhile, says the ground is level for all bidders and the terms and conditions required for success apply to all.
“While the Ministry does not interfere in commercial negotiations, any successful bidder must satisfy regulatory conditions before any transfer of mining rights is approved,” the Ministry said in a late afternoon statement. “The economic significance of the Mupane Mine to Matsiloje, Francistown region and the country is not lost to us and we will facilitate its reopening expeditiously; therefore supporting a resolution that restores hope and dignified livelihoods through sustainable jobs and economic activity back into the region.”
The Ministry said non-negotiable criteria for any winning bidder include demonstrated capacity to execute a productive and sustainable mining plan, proven technical expertise and operational experience, verified financial solvency, and evidence of being a credible, responsible, and compliant corporate citizen.
According to records seen by Mmegi, of the ten companies that responded to the Request for Offer by the deadline of June 15, just three paid the refundable P1 million deposit.
Of the three, one, Nova Africa, is offering $21 million as a once-off payment, which includes the signing of agreements, together with a 45-day due diligence period. Nova is a newly registered company with 49% held by citizens with mining and technical backgrounds, and the balance owned by a United Arab Emirates firm.
ULSAN, another bidder, has offered $500,000 to buy the site and, after a 15-month due diligence, says it could offer a final price of up to $15 million. Trollope Botswana, the final bidder, has requested more time for due diligence activities before making an offer.
While creditors await the date to vote on their preferred bidder, they will also be digesting revelations that authorities managing the Mupane estate are struggling to uncover mysteries behind missing revenues at the mine.
According to reports seen by Mmegi, a total of $22 million was generated in sales at Mupane in the years before its closure and advanced to entities related to a former owner, amounts which were then written off without explanation. The move thus masked the true state of Mupane's finances and meant that Hawks Mining, the citizen group that took over the mine in 2023, inherited a broke operation.
In addition, experts engaged by the liquidator made preliminary findings of a revenue shortfall of P317.6 million from January 2014 to March 2024, as a result of production inconsistencies.
“There is no record of management addressing or reporting this discrepancy,” reads the liquidator's report to creditors. 'Nor is there any record of financial managers raising concerns regarding these shortfalls. “My discussions with Cedric Sam (Hawks Mining director) reveal that they were never aware of any significant discrepancies...and that it could be explained by what they called Gold in Circulation.”
The liquidator noted that while Sam said Gold in Circulation was standard practice in mining and should not be surprising, there was a need to further probe the matter for the creditors’ sake.
The experts engaged to probe the matter said they “strongly recommended” that an in-depth investigation be carried out on the production and revenue shortfall.
Mupane’s creditors, who are owed more than P100 million, are due to meet next on August 28.