[miningmx.com] — FIRST Uranium shareholders approved the sale of
the company’s key asset on Wednesday, setting in motion a process that would see
the failed gold miner wind down its operations.
The sale of Ezulwini (for $70m) and Mine Waste Solutions (for $335m) to Gold One
International and AngloGold Ashanti were given the green light at a special
shareholders’ meeting in Toronto, following months during which minority
shareholders have threatened to derail these transactions as they deemed the prices to be too low.
“With respect to the AngloGold resolution, 91.7% of the shares voted at the shareholders meeting were voted in favour,” read a company statement. “With respect to the Gold One resolution, 91.7% of the shares…were voted in favour.”
The transactions would now enable First Uranium to settle debentures and notes to
the tune of $320m, with shareholders expected to receive anything up to C$0.33 per share in distributions.
First Uranium listed with much fanfare in 2007 at C$7/share on the TSX, with a
second listing on the JSE, but has been dogged by operational setbacks, governance
issues and misfortune ever since.
Among the first beneficiaries of the deals would be shareholders of Village Main
Reef. The company is the holder of secured notes with a face value of R392m and
will also be in line for distributions because of its 5% shareholding in First
Uranium.
CEO Bernard Swanepoel said in February the proceeds from First Uranium’s sale
would be surplus to the capital requirements of Village and promised to pay a special dividend once the monies were received. Neither Swanepoel nor his joint CEO Marius Saaiman was immediately available to comment.
As for the Gold One and AngloGold deals, they are expected to be finalised by month-end.
