JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed Vast Resources’ 80%-owned subsidiary African Consolidated Resources (Vast Romania) has signed an agreement with Romanian State-owned company Baita setting out steps for Vast to obtain the right to mine the Baita Plai Polymetallic Mine (BPPM).
The agreement, which was initiated by Baita, was independent of Vast Romania's rights to obtain a mining sublicence through an existing merger agreement with Baita’s subsidiary, Mineral Mining SA (MMSA), the completion of which remained delayed subject to approval processes in the Romanian Courts.
Baita SA sought to obtain the approval of the Ministry of Economy for the mining sublicence; sign the contract for the mining sublicence; submit a bipartisan letter to the Romanian National Mining Agency (ANRM) for the mining sublicence; and seek to secure ANRM's approval for the mining sublicence.
The new agreement also set out that, within 48 hours of ANRM's agreement, Vast Romania would pay $608 744 to Baita, which was a debt to which Vast Romania would already have been liable on completion of the earlier merger agreement.
In addition, Vast Romania would pay Baita $367 000, less a debt owed by Baita to MMSA of $77 560, in 12 equal monthly instalments, with the first payment to be made three months after ANRM's approval of the mining sublicence. This represented dewatering costs for the benefit of BPPM borne by Baita during MMSA's administration.
"This agreement is extremely important and transformational for the company. I am confident that the matter of issuing the mining sublicence to BPPM will now proceed to completion swiftly and I am hopeful that BPPM will be in production in the first quarter of 2016,” Vast Romania president Andrew Prelea noted.