PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Kingsgate Consolidated will submit an application for a five-year renewal of the metallurgical licence over the Chatree gold mine, in Thailand, which was ordered to cease operations at the end of the year.
The company told shareholders on Friday that the lodgment of the renewal application was required 60 days prior to its expiration under Thailand’s law.
Kingsgate said that there could be no assurances that the renewal application would be successful, but added that it continued to push for remedies to the “premature closure” of the Chatree mine.
The government has not given any reasons for its order to close the Chatree mine – Thailand’s only gold operation – but previously said that the suspension order was in no way a reflection on the way that Kingsgate operated the mine.
Meanwhile, Singapore-based Northern Gulf Petroleum International has freed its offer for a 50.1% share in Kingsgate of the conditions set out in the bidders statement.
Northern Gulf in September launched a 4.2c-a-share cash offer for shares in Kingsgate, with the company’s director, Chatchai Yenbamroong, claiming that he could potentially save Kingsgate from losing the Chatree mine.
An independent expert has deemed the offer neither fair nor reasonable, and Kingsgate has advised that shareholders refuse the offer.