Johannesburg - Randlord Consolidated Mines, chaired by South African mining entrepreneur Peter Skeat, plans to spend more than R100 million reviving surface operations at the Blyvooruitzicht gold mine, west of Johannesburg.
The company aimed to get the operations up and running this year and would then consider expanding underground, which required “a substantially larger capital investment”, it said in response to questions. Skeat has been involved in South African gold producers, including Afrikander Lease, Mintails and Galaxy Gold Mining.
Blyvooruitzicht, or “happy prospect” in Afrikaans, was overrun by illegal miners and thieves taking equipment in 2013 after a dispute between DRDGold and Village Main Reef, the last two operators, led to both walking away.
Falling gold prices made it uneconomical and about 1 700 people lost their jobs when the mine was put into liquidation proceedings.
Randlord agreed to take over the mine in December and a processing plant a year earlier, the company said, declining to say how much it had paid.
Blyvooruitzicht’s shaft and underground operations were “defunct” after extensive theft, Leigh Roering, a director at liquidator Harvard Corporate Recovery Services, said.
“We were trying to sell the surface assets for best value and we’re happy to sell them at the price we did.”
In 2014, Goldrich Holdings had agreed to operate the mine, but was eventually removed from the property after failing to fulfil the conditions of its deal.
BLOOMBERG