BMWU excited by firm offer to buy BCL Mine
Chakalisa Dube | Tuesday February 14, 2017 16:20
The BCL Group, which owns BCL Investment in Selebi-Phikwe and Tati Nickel Mine in Francistown, was supposed to be placed under final liquidation late last week.
Early last month, the liquidator Nigel Dixon-Warren declared the BCL Group will be placed under final liquidation after it was declared fatally insolvent and said that the assets of the Mine will be sold as a whole or piecemeal to pay creditors.
The final liquidation was however, halted after it emerged that there is a suitor who is interested in the BCL Group.
Investors from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are said to have tabled a firm offer to buy BCL Mine. Recently the Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, Sadique Kebonang travelled to the UAE to negotiate a deal with the said investors.
“We greatly welcome the offer and we hope that the new investor will buy all divisions of the Mine. We want to see an investor who will bring the Mine back to life as soon as possible and create more jobs,” said Jack Tlhagale, the BMWU president.
Tlhagale added: “We will be following the events very closely. We hope that the Government will be more transparent in the sale of the Mine”.
Tlhagale also expressed hope that BCL will be bought at a reasonable price.
“Our view has always been that BCL should be sold as a high value Mine and our fear is that the Government has been very negative about the future prospects of the mine which means that it can attract not so suitable offers.”
The BMWU recently expressed worry that the Government was not doing enough to market the Mine.
The Union has always expressed the desire to see the Mine being sold as early as possible in order to absorb some of the workers who lost their jobs when the BCL group was placed under provisional liquidation.
Approximately 6,000 workers under the BCL Group lost their jobs when it was placed under provisional liquidation last October.