"...THE COMPLETION of business rescue of Southgold Exploration meant the Burnstone gold mine in Balfour, Mpumalanga, was likely to resuscitate the economy of the area, Peter van den Steen, the mine’s business rescue practitioner, said yesterday.
Burnstone is 100 percent owned by Southgold, which was previously held by JSE- and Toronto-listed Great Basin Gold.
Great Basin Gold filed for business rescue at Southgold in September 2012. The company invested $500 million (R5.4 billion) to develop the mechanised mine, but went into liquidation after running into financial difficulties.
Wits Gold became the winning bidder for Southgold Exploration from the business rescue practitioner. Sibanye Gold, South Africa’s second-largest gold producer, exercised its option to acquire Southgold and Burnstone last year after buying Wits Gold for $7.4m and taking on $177.3m in bank debt owed. Sibanye has plans to spend R1 billion to develop the ore body.
The business rescue process started 22 months ago and was completed on Monday.
“The completion of the business rescue is huge. The mine was facing liquidation, which could have resulted in a hole in the ground and some scrap metal around it, as all licences and rights lapse when a mine is liquidated. This would have been another Aurora empowerment controversy,” Van den Steen said.
Aurora was named the preferred bidder for Pamodzi’s liquidated Orkney and Grootvlei mines and was blamed for stripping the assets and selling them for scrap metal.
Van den Steen was roped in by Southgold to initiate the business rescue and proposed restructuring of the company’s debt and the sale of Burnstone.
The completion of the business rescue would allow Sibanye to develop Burnstone, James Wellsted, a Sibanye Gold spokesman, said yesterday.
Sibanye had completed a due diligence on the mine and needed to work on understanding the ore body before projections for production were made public. Approval for the plans from the executive committee were also outstanding, he said.
The company planned to use conventional mining methods and would mine only higher grade ore, unlike Great Basin, which planned to mechanise. “We are still developing our production plans and strategy, so any forecasts on issues like jobs and life of mine are pure speculation at this stage.”
Lara Kahn, a partner at Webber Wentzel, which represented Van den Steen, said this was the first and largest business rescue success in South Africa. The transaction was a real “shot in the arm” for business rescue. She believed that South Africa could see a continued rise in business rescue transactions. “This is a real good news story for South African enterprises as the Southgold business rescue impacts both the mining industry and the financial sector.”
Peter Van Den Steen Turnaround Specialist, Business Rescue Practitioner (metis.co.za) Johannesburg Area, South "...BRP: Great Basin Gold's Southgold Exploration/Burnstone Mine V-Squared Business Rescue Services (Pty) Ltd September 2012 – July 2014 (1 year 11 months) Business Rescue successful. Up to 2000 jobs saved. Total deal value approx R2.75 bil all in...."
Great Basin Gold Ltd (GBGJ.J) Related Topics: STOCKSSTOCK SCREENERMARKET DATABASIC MATERIALSGOLD OVERVIEW NEWS KEY DEVELOPMENTS PEOPLE CHARTS FINANCIALS ANALYSTS RESEARCH PULSE GBGJ.J on Johannesburg Stock Exchange
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SUMMARY Name Age Since Current Position Ronald Thiessen 64 2005 Independent Chairman of the Board Ray Dombrowski 2012 Chief Executive Officer Patrick Cooke 2012 Interim Chief Financial Officer, Director Peter Gibson 2012 Chief Financial Officer Dana Roets 2011 Chief Operating Officer Willem Beckmann 2012 Vice President - Legal and Compliance Philip Bentley 2010 Vice President - Geology and Exploration Bheki Khumalo 2011 Vice President - Organizational Effectiveness Dawid Mostert 46 2006 Vice President - Human Capital Bernhard Zinkhofer 60 2011 Corporate Secretary Joshua Ngoma 2009 Director T. Barry Coughlan 71 1998 Independent Director Anu Dhir 45 2011 Independent Director Octavia Matloa 40 2011 Independent Director Michael Curlook Head - Investor Relations & Communications» Insider Trading BIOGRAPHIES Name Description Ronald Thiessen Mr. Ronald W. Thiessen is an Independent Chairman of the Board of Great Basin Gold Ltd., since December 6, 2005. He is a Chartered Accountant with professional experience in finance, taxation, mergers, acquisitions and re-organizations. Since 1986, Mr. Thiessen has been involved in the acquisition and financing of mining and mineral exploration companies. Mr. Thiessen is a director of Hunter Dickinson Inc. (“HDI”) and its wholly owned subsidiary, Hunter Dickinson Services Inc. (“HDSI”), a company providing management and administrative services to several publicly-traded companies and focuses on directing corporate development and financing activities. His other directorships includes: Amarc Resources Ltd., Anooraq Resources Corporation, Continental Minerals Corporation, Detour Gold Corporation, Farallon Mining Ltd., Great Basin Gold Ltd., Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., Quartz Mountain Resources Ltd., Rockwell Diamonds Inc., Taseko Mines Limited. Ray Dombrowski Patrick Cooke Mr. Patrick Randal Cooke, B.Comm. (Wits), CA (SA), serves as Interim Chief Financial Officer, Director of Great Basin Gold Ltd. He has been appointed as Interim Chief Financial Officer of the Company effective August 16, 2012. Mr. Patrick Cooke received his chartered accountant designation in South Africa in 1981. As a Chartered Accountant he worked as a management consultant with one of the accounting companies as well as working for a merchant bank. Mr. Cooke was responsible for listing two companies on the main board of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and was the Financial Director of a third JSE listed company. His industry experience is wide, having been involved in mineral resources, information technology, wholesale fast moving consumer goods, financial services and professional services companies. He was appointed a non-executive director of Sallies Limited in October 2009 and, with effect from February 1, 2010, was appointed Financial Director and Chief Operating Officer and with effect from 8 February 2011 was appointed Acting Chief Executive Officer. Effective 1 January 2012 Mr. Cooke resigned from Sallies Limited. Mr. Cooke has been appointed a non-executive director of Anooraq Resources Corporation with effect from 1 January 2012. His other directorships includes: Pangea DiamondFields PLC., Great Basin Gold Ltd., Sallies Ltd., Anooraq Resources Corp. Peter Gibson Dana Roets Mr. Dana Roets is Chief Operating Officer of Great Basin Gold Ltd., since October 3, 2011. Dana Roets is a qualified Mining Engineer and an alumnus of the University of Pretoria (1986), who also holds an MBA through the University of Cape Town (1995). He started his mining career at Gold Fields’ St Helena Gold Mine in the Free State, and then spent two years as Manager Mining and General Manager at the Oryx Gold Mine. He was Managing Director of Kloof Mines before spending four years as Managing Director of Gold Fields’ Free State Mines and Vice President and Head of Operations at Beatrix Gold Mine. Subsequently, he spent a further three years as the Vice President: Technical Services and a year as Vice President and Head of Operations at the Kloof Gold Mine. He was appointed VP Corporate Development with Great Basin Gold in February 2010, before joining Anglo Platinum in mid-2011. He was instrumental in the development and application of Long Hole Stoping as mining method at company's Burnstone operations. Willem Beckmann Mr. Willem J. P. Beckmann serves as Vice President - Legal and Compliance of Great Basin Gold Ltd. He joined Great Basin Gold Limited in 2006 and is responsible for the Company’s legal and compliance, security, risk management and environmental functions. Mr. Beckmann is an accredited attorney, notary and conveyancer. He began his career as an officer in the South African Defence Force, where he gained experience in administrative law, the drafting of legislation and investigatory review techniques. He entered the gold mining industry in 2002 as Group Security Manager at Harmony Gold, before founding the company’s Legal and Compliance Department, overseeing the security, legal and enterprise-wide risk management functions. He obtained his B.Juris LLB from North West University in 1983. Philip Bentley Mr. Philip N. Bentley is Vice President - Geology and Exploration of Great Basin Gold Ltd. He joined Great Basin Gold Limited in September 2008. Mr. Bentley has more than 26 years experience in the mineral exploration and mining sector, gained mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, North and South America, and Australasia. He has operated from South Africa since 1984, working with companies such as Randgold Resources Ltd., Rand Mines / Randgold Exploration, Central African Gold plc, and Metallon Gold Corp. Mr. Bentley specializes in applied geology with respect to gold mineralization systems, as well as core exploration management, orebody evaluation, and project development. His qualifications include an MSc in Economic Geology (Victoria, NZ) and an MSc in Mineral Exploration (Rhodes, RSA). Bheki Khumalo Mr. Bheki Khumalo is Vice President - Organizational Effectiveness of Great Basin Gold Ltd., since October 2011. Mr. Khumalo began his career as a Clinical Psychologist from 1997 to 2003. He then studied for his LLB with the University of South Africa and was thereafter admitted as an attorney. As a practising Attorney he worked for Deneys Reitz now known as Norton Rose Group. He then joined BHP Billiton in 2007 and was later appointed as Executive Director for Hillside Aluminium Limited and Billiton SA Aluminium Limited until he joined Great Basin Gold. He holds a Masters degree in Clinical psychology and an LLB. Dawid Mostert Mr. Dawid J. Mostert is Vice President - Human Capital of Great Basin Gold Ltd., since March 1, 2006. He joined Great Basin Gold Limited as Vice President, Human Capital in March 2006. Mr. Mostert has more than 15 years’ experience in the mining sector. His past positions have included Human Resources Executive and Manager, Mine Manager (Elandsrand), Training and People Development Executive and Employee Relations Executive. In 2002 he was appointed an Executive of Harmony Gold, in which capacity he served on the Boards of The South African Mathematics Foundation and the Mining Qualifications Authority (Mining SETA). Mr. Mostert holds a Diploma in Labour Relations (DPLR) (Advanced Labour Law) and a MBA Degree from Wits University in South Africa. Bernhard Zinkhofer Joshua Ngoma Mr. Joshua C. Ngoma, M.Eng., is a Director of Great Basin Gold Ltd., since July 15, 2009. He is a founding member and the current Chief Executive Officer of Tranter Holdings (Pty) Ltd. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree with honours in mining engineering from Camborne School of Mines in the UK and a Master of Engineering in Project Management from Pretoria University in South Africa and has spent most of his career in the mining industry. He served with ZCCM (Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Ltd), Cementation Mining, De Beers and Sasol Mining before joining Eyesizwe Coal, where he served from Group Technical Manager to General Manager of the Matla Colliery. He later joined Anglo Platinum as the Group Manager: New Mining Technologies, where he was responsible for the development and implementation of the Group’s new mining technologies. His other directorships includes: Great Basin Gold Ltd. T. Barry Coughlan Mr. T. Barry Coughlan is an Independent Director of Great Basin Gold Ltd., since February 1998. Mr. Coughlan isis a self-employed businessman and financier active in the mineral resource business for over the past 30 years and has had global experience in the acquisition, financing, exploration and development of resources projects and publicly traded mining companies. His principal occupation is President and Director of TBC Ventures Ltd., a private investment company, which has participate in the development of resource projects in Canada, the USA, Africa and Mexico, Ireland, Poland and Guatemala. His other directorships includes: Farallon Resources Ltd., Great Basin Gold Ltd., Icon Industries Ltd., Quartz Mountain Resources Ltd., Taseko Mines Limited., Quadro Resources Ltd. (formerlyTri-Gold Resources Corp)., Amarc Resources Ltd., Creso Explorations Inc., Vatic Ventures Corp., Rathdowney Resource Corp.
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