Australians Aquila may take Govt. to court

[miningmx.com] – AQUILA Resources said it will take the South African government to court if fails to win a mining right to parts of a 147.8 million tonne (mt) manganese deposit situated in South Africa’s Northern province.

The mining right relates to the Gravenhage manganese deposit which is subject to an overlapping prospecting right that Aquila Resources said today had been lodged by Pan African Mineral Development Company (PAMDC), an entity owned by the governments of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Michael Halliday, who manages Aquila Resources’ South African operations, said the company had asked for South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) to make a decision on awarding the mining right following failed discussions regarding the overlapping prospecting right.

Law firm, Webber Wentzel, which is representing Aquila Resources, had today written to mines minister, Susan Shabangu,”requesting a formal decision on the grant … Failing a positive decision, Aquila will take all necessary action to protect its rights, which may include an internal appeal under section 96 of the South African Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (2002), an injunction and judicial
review proceedings,” Halliday said in a company announcement.

The situation has shades of the dispute between Lonmin and the HolGoun Group in 2011 in which HolGoun Group’s subsidiary, Keysha Investments, was awarded a prospecting right over a portion of Lonmin’s Marikana operations.

The Director General of the DMR, Thibedi Ramontja, rejected Lonmin’s appeal against the granting of the prospecting right to Keysha over the property for minerals related to PGM’s, and the parties were encouraged to “work together”.

“It’s not impossible for holders of different mineral rights to work together on one property, it happens everywhere.’ HolGoun’s Head of Business Development, Anastasia Maimonis said in January 2012. In the end the HolGoun Group sold the prospecting rights for $4m to Lonmin.

Halliday said the overlapping prospecting right appeared from documents provided by PAMDC’s lawyers to have been granted on November 17, 2011 – five years after a prospecting right over parts of the same areas was granted to an Aquila subsidiary, and a year after the mining right application was accepted. PAMDC was incorporated in November, 2007.

“It is regrettable that Aquila now needs to consider legal action to protect the security of its tenure on the Gravenhage Manganese Deposit, having advanced the project since 2006 in accordance with all relevant laws and DMR requirements,” Halliday said.

Aquila was considering investing up to $480m in South Africa of which $180m would be on the proposed 1.5 million tonne/year (mtpa) Avontuur manganese mine of which the Gravenhage deposit is a part.

Aquila said a further $215m to $300m is being proposed for investment on Thabazimbi, an iron ore prospect containing an estimated 37.1mt in measured resources. Some R450m has been invested in exploration activities by Aquila Resources since 2006.

Commenting on the overlapping prospecting right last week, Aquila Resources executive chairman, Tony Poli, said: “The best way to attack the issue is to have the matter discussed face-to-face”.

The Gravenhage manganese deposit is situated at the northern end of the Avontuur project. During 2011, Aquila completed a definitive feasibility study on the deposit which found a reserve of 20.2mt at an average grade of 40.1% manganese.