City Press Business reports that the company that had sealed an agreement to buy a 74% shareholding in Vantage Goldfields this month lodged an urgent court application to enforce the transfer of the shares and avert liquidation of the gold mining company.  

Flaming Silver Trading 373 – a subsidiary of Siyakhula Sonke Corporation (SSC) – as approached the Pretoria High Court to force Vantage to hand over the shares and other documents.  Vantage owns the Lily and Barbrook gold mines in Mpumalanga.  The two mines have been under business rescue since the entrance to Lily Mine’s shaft collapsed on 5 February 2016 – leaving three workers dead and buried underground.  Not since Flaming Silver and Vantage reached their agreement in November 2017 have the shares been transferred, despite the Department of Mineral Resources’ approval of the transaction in December 2018.  This stalemate stalled the release of a R190m loan from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to Flaming Silver.  Flaming Silver’s application was lodged in reaction to Vantage’s threat on 13 March to cancel the agreement because Flaming Silver had breached it by failing to secure the funding.  Meantime, the business rescue practitioners have threatened to liquidate Vantage because of lack of progress in respect of the agreement or to look for other purchasers of the mines.  In its application, Flaming Silver pointed out that should liquidation happen, the prospect of “employing approximately 900 employees and generating revenue will be extremely remote and probably impossible.”

Read the full original of Sizwe Sama Yende’s report on the above story at City Press

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