Hope sprout for TNMC as new suitors loom
Lebogang Mosikare | Friday October 13, 2017 12:50
Though Dixon-Warren indicated that TNMC might not start operations soon, as earlier anticipated, he said negotiations with a potential investor would soon take shape .
“We have signed an exclusivity agreement with an international company that is interested in buying both BCL and TNMC. We however, maintain that we will be prioritising TNMC during negotiations (of the sale) of the mines. This is because the mine is still under provisional liquidation and conditions of its sale are more relaxed than at BCL,” Dixon-Warren said yesterday. The exclusivity agreement gives the current prospective buyer some protection from other interested buyers for any of the BCL assets during the negotiations, Dixon-Warren added. According to him, the exclusivity deal was signed last week Friday. He added: “The company interested in buying the mine will have to do a physical tour of BCL and TNMC premises. It will then carry out a due diligence study before deciding to buy or not. All these processes will most likely be completed early next year. That is why I do not believe the mine will open anytime soon”.
Dixon-Warren continued, “I think operations at TNMC will start around April (should the current bidder buy the mine) because negotiating the sale might also take time as it involves many legal processes”.
He however, did not give the name of the company and where it comes from for confidentiality reasons.
Since the liquidation of the BCL Group, speculation has heightened that TNMC will open soon. In August this year, Warren-Dixon said that TNMC continues to attract many investors because the mine is considered a very viable entity. Over 500 employees at TNMC lost their jobs as a result of the liquidation of the BCL Group in the first week of October last year. Companies subcontracted to TNMC mine also closed, shedding hundreds of jobs in the process.
Over 4,000 workers also lost their jobs when BCL mine in Selebi-Phikwe closed. Early this year the government attempted but failed to convince Emirates Investment House (EIH) from Dubai to buy the BCL group. BCL mine was placed under final liquidation in June this year.
Representatives from EIH met the Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security Sadique Kebonang with a view to buying BCL assets. Officials from EIH also visited BCL Group facilities where they carried out a due diligence study, but failed to make a firm offer.