More legal action at Ngwenda Gold

[miningmx.com] — DENNIS van Kerrebroeck – the Canadian businessman at the centre of the furore over exploration company Ngwenda Gold – has rejected the allegations made against him by Ngwenda director Mashudi Nengwenda.

In documents filed with the South Gauteng High Court on Monday, Nengwenda claimed that Van Kerrebroeck had “hijacked’ Ngwenda Gold and appointed himself the sole director.

Nengwenda stated that Ngwenda Gold had an in situ value of more than R1bn and said: “It is extremely dangerous for Ngwenda Gold to be under the control of Van Kerrebroeck, who is a man of questionable reputation.’

Interviewed in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Van Kerrebroeck said: “There are two sides to every story. I will file my response to their urgent application in the South Gauteng High Court on Thursday.

“I will vigorously oppose the allegations contained in their affidavits and present my side of the story backed up by the facts, not hearsay.

“Until then I have no further comment to make on the case, but I would like to say I find it astounding that the press can run the kind of one-sided articles that they have about me based only on Nengwenda’s version of the story.’

Van Kerrebroeck said he had been in South Africa for the past seven months finalising the Ngwenda deal, which involved ownership of the prospecting rights to the Sun North and South extensions of the Target gold mine in the Free State, owned by Harmony.

He added the key to the valuation of Ngwenda lay in acquiring the historical borehole data to the Sun ground, which was held by Harmony.

This information would allow the calculation of an inferred resource of contained gold but it would not be provided until Harmony management knew who it was dealing with.

“As of right now, there is no value in Ngwenda,’ Van Kerrebroeck said.

Harmony CEO Graham Briggs said: “From my point of view, I am merely a pawn in this whole thing.

“We did a due diligence exercise on Ngwenda and part of that was to determine whether we were speaking to the right people. At this point in time I don’t know who I am speaking to.’

Briggs said that, in addition to the borehole information, Harmony owned prospecting rights in the region which could be combined with those held by Ngwenda into some form of joint venture.

“The reefs are deep but, if you can put together a good resource, it may prove viable even at depths of around 3,000m.’

Van Kerrebroeck also denied allegations of diamond theft made against him in an article published last July in the New York Post.

He said: “I purchased the diamond in question in good faith. I imported it legally into the United States and it was cleared legally through customs.

“I put the agreed purchase price for the diamond into escrow because it had become unclear as to who the true owner of that diamond was, because the documentation provided did not match up.

“I have never received even a request to be interviewed about this matter by any police agency.’