Gerard Holden, chairman, Brinkley Mining
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Brinkley hits back in DRC uranium fracas
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Tue, 18 Sep 2007

[miningmx.com] -- BRINKLEY Mining, which is finalising uranium agreements in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), believes there is a smear campaign to destroy the deal giving it the rights to large uranium prospects there, Brinkley Chairman Gerard Holden said on Tuesday.

“What we are seeing is that a lot of people as individuals and companies who realise the true potential of the agreements we have in the DRC and they are out to disrupt what we have got. People have been putting rumours into the market for some months now to damage us and get us out of the DRC,” Holden told Miningmx in an interview.

“What is very clear is that we are playing big-boy politics, and in a place like the DRC playing big-boy politics can get very ugly,” he said.

in the DRC playing big-boy politics can get very ugly
He declined to speculate who the parties might be but said he didn’t think it was uranium mining companies.

Britain’s Sunday Times ran a story on 16 September about Brinkley’s involvement with Nico Shafer, a convicted fraudster and businessman declared persona non-grata in the DRC, and a company connected to Shefer called Sentinelle Investments in helping Brinkley reach a memorandum of understanding with the DRC’s nuclear agency for the exploration, mining and export of DRC uranium.

The thrust of the Sunday Times story was Shefer’s involvement in the transaction could scupper the finalisation of the agreement, which needs to be signed off by DRC President Joseph Kabila, as the government moves to weed out corrupt transactions through a review of all mining agreements in the country.

Brinkley, which does not yet have exploration permits or mining permits, would fall outside this review, Holden said. “We are not subject to that review.”

Brinkley has a joint venture agreement with General Commission for Atomic Energy (CGEA), which is solely responsible for uranium matters in the DRC, Holden said. Brinkley’s wholly owned subsidiary Brinkley Africa holds 75% of the joint venture and the CGEA and DRC the rest.

Sentinelle had laid the foundations with the CGEA for about 90% of the transaction before Brinkley bought the deal through Brinkley Africa and completed it, he said, adding neither Shefer nor Sentinelle had any holdings in Brinkley or its subsidiary in the DRC Brinkley Africa.

Brinkley Africa was partnered by Narina Trust, which had no connection with Shefer or Sentinelle, in the MOU setting up the CGEA joint venture, Holden said. Narina has subsequently been bought out of Brinkley Africa to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Brinkley Plc.

Shefer is extremely well connected in the DRC, making a valuable consultant, Holden said, adding Brinkley’s reliance on him was sporadic and likely to become less as the company set up and established its own networks in the country.

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“We’ll use whoever we need to at different times and if Nico can help then we will talk to him again,” he said.

The DRC’s deputy mines minister Victor Kasongo told Reuters on Monday that Brinkley’s deal with the DRC’s nuclear agency had “no value or validity” because there was no ministerial approval for the transaction.

Holden was at pains to point out that under the DRC’s mining laws uranium is classified as a “reserve substance” and falls outside the ambit of those laws. It is the responsibility for the CGEA to negotiate the exploration, mining and treatment of uranium. The mines ministry will be approached for exploration and mining permits, a point that is still some way off for Brinkley.

“We have not heard anything from our partners (CGEA) to say there are problems. All we’ve had is a series of rumours and now these attacks from Kasongo, who is essentially a junior minister,” Holden said. “As far as we’re concerned we entered a legally valid agreement and that still stands. If anything in that regard changes we will pursue legal remedies.”

Francois Lubala Toto, head of the CGEA, told Reuters, there was nothing wrong with the deal and it was awaiting Kabila’s signature. Toto sits on the review panel looking over the mining licence agreements.

Holden anticipates Kabila to sign off on the transaction in the first half of October, which would clear the way for the issuing of exploration permits.

Brinkley has taken legal advice within the DRC and is confident the memorandum of understanding (MOU) reached late in 2006 and signed by the then minister of mines and the minister of science to give the AIM-traded company first right of refusal on the exploration and development of any uranium property in the country.

In July this year, Brinkley signed amendments to the MOU with then scientific research minister Sylvester Bonane, who was subsequently fired, and prime minister. Holden said the reasons given by Kabila for Bonane’s departure did not include the agreement with Brinkley, contrary to the claim by Kasongo in the Reuters story.

A cabinet shuffle is expected in early October and it remains to be seen what role Kasongo will play in the new cabinet. It is thought a former mines minister might be reappointed to the top job.