Construction, engineering and steel group Aveng has said, in its most confident statement on the dispute yet, that platinum-miner Aquarius Platinum South Africa would eventually have to pay out for cancelling a mining contract at its Marikana mine, but that this would likely only occur in three to four years time.

“The money is going to come to us,” asserted FD Dennis Gammie, although he said he was not sure when this would take place. “They are trying to stretch it out for as long as they possibly can.”

Neither Aquarius CEO Stuart Murrray nor spokesperson Nick Bias were immediately available for comment when Mining Weekly Online tried to contact them on their cell phones late on Monday afternoon.

“We’ve just got to sit there and be patient for it,” Gammie added, calling the money a contingency asset.

Gammie went on to question whether or not Aquarius itself had a contingency liability for the payment.

The dispute centres around what Aveng believes to be the unlawful cancellation of its contract with Aquarius Platinum.

The claim is worth some R220-million.

King Shaka Airport dispute

Meanwhile, in another legal battle, concerning the refusal of Dube TradePort to consider Grinaker-LTA-led consortium Indiza’s bid to build a new Durban airport, Aveng said was pursuing a legal review, which it expected to occur in the first quarter of 2008.

“There is no downside in this for us, only upside,” Gammie assured, adding that there was no need for contingency liabilities.

He said that if Indiza won its case, the courts would put the contract back to where it was before the Group Five-led Ilembe consortium was awarded the R6,8-billion contract.

Gammie added that Dube TradePort had awarded the contract to the Ilembe consortium “at its own peril”.

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