| |
Wits Gold moves towards pre-feasibility study
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Mon, 07 Jan 2008
[miningmx.com] -- WITS GOLD will have a passive secondary listing in Toronto in coming weeks as it moves towards a pre-feasibility study on some of its gold assets in South Africa, CEO Marc Watchorn said on Monday.
Watchorn said there were exciting developments in the offing but he could not speak about them just yet. “All I can say is watch this space. We'll be putting out some news releases in the near future,” he said.
Founding shareholder and raging gold bull Adam Fleming sold 100,000 shares on 24 December for R12m, but this was no indication of his view of the company, Watchorn said. Fleming still has around 10% of Wits’ shares.
“The Fleming family employee trust had the option to acquire those shares and Adam himself only directly benefited by about $100,000,” he said.
The option entitled the employees to acquire the shares at $1 each.
Two other independent non-executive directors also sold down their empowerment shareholding. Humphrey Mathe sold 35,750 shares worth R4.47m and Taole Mokoena sold 60,160 shares for R7.5m on 24 December.
The empowerment shareholders are locked in to their 26% stake in Wits Gold until 2014, but anything over that they can sell as they wish, Watchorn said. The empowerment shareholding stands at around 34% despite
the year-end sales.
The pre-feasibility study into the southern Free State resources will begin “very soon”, Watchorn said. There are between 10 million and 20 million ounces estimated in those assets.
Wits Gold, which has some of South Africa’s deepest gold deposits, has touted itself as an option on the gold price, but there appears to be a shift towards bringing some of its assets to production. Companies like Gold Fields and Harmony, from which Wits bought its assets, have options on those prospects.
Wits has R100m in cash and has no need to raise further cash in 2008, Watchorn said.
| |
0% 
