JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Despite there being no resolution in sight to a protracted legal dispute surrounding shareholder funding provisions related to empowerment partner Puno Gold Investment, dual-listed Central Rand Gold (CRG) remained confident of the strength of its case as it headed back to the Supreme Court.
The company on Monday said the High Court of South Africa upheld the appeal by CRG against an earlier judgment by the Supreme Court that determined that debt had been prescribed and awarded a cost order in favour of CRG.
“The High Court of South Africa found that the debt had not been prescribed and that the full facts of the matter must be reconsidered by the Supreme Court in order to provide a judgment relating to the funding dispute between the company and Puno,” CRG said in an update to shareholders.
The years-long dispute between CRG and its empowerment partner started in 2007 over the allocation of intercompany loans, which fund the budget and work programme carried out by South African subsidiary CRGSA.
In 2009, direct holding company CRG Netherlands Antilles exercised the call option, granted within a shareholders' agreement, to acquire Puno's entire interest in CRGSA, a move that Puno aimed to obtain an interdict against.
The dispute also saw a 2010 attempt by Puno to seek an interdict in the South Gauteng High Court to halt the proceeding of mining operations by CRGSA pending an arbitration award or court order on the proper interpretation of clause 18 of the agreement.
“This ultimately failed as the High Court found that Puno had failed to make a case for the relief sought on each and every ground which formed the subject of the application hearing,” CRG said.