BCL liquidator asks SA court to nullify Nkomati deal

In 2014, BCL announced an agreement to buy 50% in South Africa’s Nkomati Mine from Russia’s Norilsk Nickel, a deal that only received regulatory approval from the minister, Mosebenzi Zwane last September, but never materialised as BCL was placed under liquidation a month later.

With the liquidator having declined to accept Norilsk Nickel as a creditor since last October, it is understood he has now gone a step further and filed for a judicial review of the SA minister’s approval arguing such authorisation should not have been granted as BCL did not fulfil the requirements to be a shareholder in the South African mine.