[miningmx.com] – DAPHNE Mashile-Nkosi, chairperson of Kalahari Resources, says the company will buy out shares it doesn’t own in manganese producer, Kalagadi Manganese, next year.
The R3.9bn stake, equal to 50% of Kalagadi Manganese, is owned by Luxembourg-based steel producer, ArcelorMittal Group, which said in 2012 that it wanted to divest of its position in the project – a manganese and sinter plant in the Northern Cape which also has aspirations of building a ferro-manganese smelter at Coega in the Eastern Cape. Including the smelter, total capital expenditure would top R10bn.
Speaking to BDLive, Mashile-Nkosi said: “The relationship has seriously improved. We’ve gone beyond fighting to say this is our baby and let’s do our best to bring it up. The fact we are divorcing doesn’t mean you throw it away”.
ArcelorMittal Group and Kalahari Resources fell out in 2012 and after a court battle the steel producer was ordered by the South Gauteng Court to pay R241m to Kalagadi Manganese. According to ArcelorMittal, it had withheld the capital because it had discovered during a due diligence that the project’s mining permit was owned by Mashile-Nkosi’s Kalahari Resources.
Kalahari Resources had transferred the mining permit to Kalagadi Manganese prior to the court judgement, but the dispute was only a part of wider discomfort experienced by ArcelorMittal, including allegations it had not been allowed access to Kalagadi Manganese’s financial statements.
For her part, Mashile-Nkosi denied any wrong-doing, and said her Kalahari Resources had always been transparent with ArcelorMittal.
Said Mashile-Nkosi to BDLive in a report published today: “We are going through an amicable divorce. We are in the hands of the institutions we have approached for funding.”
