[miningmx.com] — EARLY negotiations between Harmony Gold and a junior mining firm in the Free State, Ngwenda Gold, led to the discovery that Ngwenda had been hijacked, allegedly by a Canadian citizen.
This is according to court documents filed at the South Gauteng High Court on Monday, wherein the former directors Ngwenda asked for the reversal of the “hijacking’ of its identity and assets through the falsification of Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (Cipro) records.
In the court papers, Ngwenda Gold director and founder Mashudi Nengwenda stated that the first evidence of the hijacking came to light on Tuesday last week, when Cipro’s records showed Nengwenda and two other co-directors resigned from the company on January 8 this year.
At the same time, Canadian-born Dennis Barnard van Kerrebroeck (31) was appointed sole director.
Ngwenda was granted prospecting rights on April 20 2010 for gold on several farms in the Free State close to Bothaville and Odendaalsrus. These rights subsequently formed the basis of a transaction with a subsidiary of the Australian firm Atomaer, Precious Prospect Trading 80 (PPT), wherein PPT gained a 50% stake in Ngwenda in exchange for technical and fund raising expertise.
PPT has been in the process of nominating another three directors to Ngwenda’s board, including Atomaer CEO Michael Naylor.
“On 15 February 2011, Michael Naylor met with Graham Briggs, the CEO of Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited,’ read the court papers.
“The meeting between Briggs and Naylor was part of ongoing discussions on a potential transaction between Ngwenda Gold and Harmony in terms of which Ngwenda Gold would purchase… interests in prospecting rights belonging to Harmony which are adjacent to the prospecting rights owned by Ngwenda Gold.”
As part of the discussions and negotiations, Harmony had commenced due diligence studies, including a Cipro search, read the papers. Briggs subsequently informed Naylor about the results of the Cipro search which showed that Van Kerrebroeck had replaced the previous board.
“In addition, Briggs informed Naylor that he had recently been approached by the first respondent (Van Kerrebroeck) who had introduced himself as the owner of Ngwenda Gold.’
Cipro’s received the changed records on January 13. Nengwenda said he visited Cipro’s offices last week where he was shown the letters of resignation. “I can confirm that I never signed a letter of resignation,’ he said.
According to Nengwenda, Ngwenda Gold has an in-situ value in excess of R1bn.
“It is extremely dangerous for Ngwenda Gold to be under the control of Van Kerrebroeck who is a man of questionable reputation,’ he said.
Nengwenda is acquainted with Van Kerrebroeck, who approached Ngwenda Gold prior to the deal with PPT.
Ngwenda, as the first applicant, is asking the court to remove Van Kerrebroeck as director and to reinstate Nengwenda and his co-directors as the legitimate board.
“INTERNATIONAL SCOUNDREL’
According to an article published July 15 in The New York Post, Van Kerrebroeck is suspected of swiping a yellow, 68-carat canary diamond “from under the noses’ of customs agents at Kennedy Airport.
He then allegedly sold the gem to a Fifth Avenue jewellery shop.
According to the report, Van Kerrebroeck accompanied an employee of South Africa’s Higgs Diamonds, the authorised sellers of the diamond, to the United States.
Van Kerrebroeck handed the diamond to customs authorities, but allegedly told the Higgs representative that the process would take some time to clear due to a discrepancy in paperwork.
The Higgs employee checked into a hotel, after which Van Kerrebroeck cleared the diamond for entry and subsequently sold it as his own.
