Mintails suitor still unnamed

Brendan Ryan | Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:34
[miningmx.com] -- TRADING in Mintails remains suspended on the ASX, with an announcement on the possible takeover bid for the gold junior which retreats dump material in South Africa now due on Tuesday morning.

Mintails chairperson Pat Smyth said on Monday: “At this point we are immersed in lawyers. We hope to make the announcement by the start of trading on the ASX tomorrow, but we are not sure at this stage when trading in the shares will resume.”

Asked why Mintails did not want trading to resume immediately, Smyth said: “We have an offer, but an offer is not necessarily a deal. There are some other options and we need to consult with our shareholders, which could be a fairly lengthy process.

“We also need to get rulings from the Australian Stock Exchange. I cannot give any more detail at this point,” he said.

Mintails halted trading in its shares on Wednesday after “being approached by a gold producer with South African operations with a view to acquiring the South African assets of the company”.

Mintails is involved in joint ventures with DRDGOLD to recover gold from tailings dumps on the East and West Rand. The company’s assets include a 50% stake in more than 1.5 billion tonnes of dump material which can be retreated to recover gold, uranium and sulphuric acid.

Mintails also owns the potential Witfontein deposition site on the West Rand, which could be a strategic asset in any future consolidation of uranium operations in the region.

After Gold One International, Gold Fields and First Uranium/Simmer & Jack denied involvement it looks increasingly likely that the Mintails assets suitor is DRDGOLD.

DRDGOLD CEO Niel Pretorius has declined to comment.

According to Mintails, the proposal under consideration “involves the acquisition of the company’s South African assets at a price based upon an implied value determined by reference to the 30-day VWAP (volume weighted average price) of the company’s shares”.