JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The suspension of trade in the shares of fraud-hit Sentula Mining had been lifted, the company said on Wednesday.

JSE-listed mining services and coal-mining company said that JSE Limited had confirmed the lifting from December 18.

Simultaneously, Sentula promised to resolve, "as soon as possible", the matter of possible "collusion" of past senior management members in a "probable misappropriation" of R242-million.

Sentula reiterated that, during the year, the internal control systems of its subsidiary company, Scharrighuisen Open Cast Mining, had been breached, resulting in a forced restatement of its 2007 results and the making of a full R242- million provision in 2008.

Sentula reiterated further that "significant" progress had been made in its forensic investigation, which had revealed that R172-million of the missing money had arisen from the irregular revaluation of plant and equipment and R70-million from the irregular trade-in of plant and equipment.

In conjunction with the forensic investigation into the account, but not directly linked to the R242-million, KPMG forensic had also been canvassing financial institutions that provided instalment-sale-agreement funding for the purchase of the plant and equipment, which had been acquired through an intermediary company.

The forensic investigation was in the process of determining whether the instalment sale proceeds paid reconciled to the deposits into the account, but the process was not yet complete.

The board believed that the full financial impact of the irregularities had been provided for in the 2008 financial year-end accounts, but, as the investigation had not been finalised, shareholders should exercise caution when dealing in the company's shares.

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