JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aligned with its strategic decision to close its retail outlets in Tanzania, Aim-listed gemstone producer Richland Resources reports that it is in the process of finalising the sale of its Tanzanite Experience (TTE) retail operations’ tanzanite and jewellery inventory, which it expects to be completed by February 2.
This after the company was unable to find a buyer for the business as a going concern.
The miner was also currently finalising redundancy arrangements for those employees for whom it was not able to find suitable employment elsewhere in the group.
Richland announced in November that it had agreed to offload its tanzanite mining and beneficiation business and tsavorite license interests to Sky Associates.
The sale had since been approved by the company's shareholders and remained
conditional on approval by the Tanzanian Energy and Minerals Minister and the South Africa Reserve Bank, which were expected by February 24.
CEO Bernard Olivier explained in a statement that, following an assessment of the viability of TTE going forward without the support of direct mine supply, the company took the decision to sell all inventory and close the retail operations in Tanzania.
“The decision forms part of our strategy to complete the sale of our Tanzania operations and focus on the commissioning of our blue and coloured sapphire mine in Queensland, Australia. Richland is strongly committed to the certificated gemstone model and we look to applying our expertise in coloured gemstone mining to our sapphire assets during 2015,” he said on Monday.
The Capricorn sapphire project remained on target for plant commissioning and mining to start in the first quarter of the year.