[miningmx.com] – FERDI Dippenaar, CEO of Village Main Reef (VMR), said he was surprised a company consisting of former Aurora Empowerment Systems executives had been allowed to take control of the Blyvooruitzicht (Blyvoor) mine.
Business Times reported on January 26 that Fazal Bhana and Thulani Ngubane, who were part of Aurora Empowerment Systems when it bid to take control of the Pamodzi Orkney and East Rand mines, were the directors behind Goldrich.
Goldrich intends to resuscitate Blyvoor which was last operated by VMR. Dippenaar’s VMR decided put the mine into liquidation because it was no longer economically viable.
Business Times said there were fears Goldrich will “… simply strip it and leave the workers high and dry”.
BDLive, citing former National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka in August, said there were fears the mine would go the way of Grootvlei, the asset in Pamodzi’s East Rand assets. Blyvoor employed about 1,700 people who were likely to soon be without housing and access to electricity, BDLive said.
Ngubane and Bhana face lawsuits running into the hundreds of millions of rand for their roles in Aurora which was awarded the bid for Pamodzi Gold’s East Rand and Orkney mines when Pamodzi went into liquidation in 2009. However, the Aurora bosses stand accused of simply stripping the mines, leaving workers unpaid, said Business Times.
Dippenaar told the newspaper he was “surprised to hear that the liquidator would even consider selling the mine and assets to people who have a bad track record in ensuring that affected parties and especially employees get paid’.
