JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Waterberg Coal Company (WCC) is in ongoing discussions with an existing stakeholder to conclude a short-term bridging loan of up to A$1.8-million, until its recapitalisation is completed.

Despite the coal market having suffered “serious degradation” in pricing over the last few years, the company believes the value of its Waterberg project is too significant not to pursue its development.

As previously reported, discussions between WCC and AME International with respect to the recapitalisation and provision of working capital for advancing the project, are also continuing, with legal documentation and conditions precedent still under construction.

In addition, the company reports that it has engaged with senior Eskom officials to start negotiations for potential long-term future coal supply arrangements, while it is discussing the development of an independent power project with other parties.

To further advance the Waterberg project, WCC has appointed two new directors – Dr Thivhilaeli Rathogwa, an anaesthetist who practices in Polokwane, and economic geologist Christopher Tinney.

Rathogwa – a former director of Corridor Mining Resources – holds an advanced management certificate from Manchester University and has been an investor in WCC since the mid-2000s.

Tinney has over 20 years broad investment and asset management experience and has managed retail funds, pension funds and private client money; including as founder and fund manager of a resources equity hedge fund, fund manager for a South African general equity unit trust and comanager of a multibillion-rand private client equity portfolio.

More recently, he has managed direct investments in African mineral projects for a Middle Eastern family office and a partnership in an African resources corporate finance joint venture.