JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Exploration and development company Thabex has again asked the JSE to temporarily suspend its listing while it deals with a court dispute over its shareholding in Angel Diamonds.

This would be the company’s third listing suspension in three years and comes only a week after the JSE warned that it could suspend the company’s shares if it failed to submit the provisional reports for its 2010 financial year before the end of this month.

The company, which explores for diamonds, gold and base metals, told shareholders in a statement on Tuesday that an application had been brought in the High Court of Lesotho, last week, seeking an urgent interdict to challenge the shareholding of Thabex in its 60,09% owned Lesotho-based subsidiary Angel Diamonds.

This was in relation to the termination of a shareholders agreement, in September 2009, when UK-based diamond exploration company Mantle Diamonds acquired a 13,33% stake in Angel.

The court application had been served on all three companies.

The court order had been granted by the High Court of Lesotho on Monday and the companies had until July 16 to provide reasons why the order should not be made final.

Thabex believed that the court action could have a material influence on the 2010 financial year provisional results, as it related to the shareholding and the loan account of Angel, prompting it to apply for the listing suspension.

In July last year, the junior miner and five other stakeholders in Angel agreed to sell a 13,33% stake to Mantle for $500 000.

It had initially planned to sell 42% out of its 70% stake in the subsidiary, which held a prospecting licence over the Kolo Kimberlite project, in Lesotho, to Mantle for $2-million, but the plan was blocked by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB).

At the time, the SARB stated that the subsidiary could not be disposed of on extended credit terms and that the issuance of Mantle Diamonds ordinary shares to the Angel shareholders, would constitute a loop structure.

Thabex’s JSE listing had been suspended in 2008 and again between July 2009 and January this year, for failing to submit provisional financial reports to the exchange.

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