Vedanta seeks arbitration from South African High Court amid KCM lawsuit
Diversified miner Vedanta Resources on Wednesday obtained an ex parte order in the High Court of South Africa, granting the company leave to institute an urgent interim interdict application against ZCCM Investments Holdings.
In terms of the urgent application, served on both Zambian company ZCCM and provisional liquidator Milingo Lungu for Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), Vedanta declared that ZCCM had breached the KCM shareholders’ agreement by pursuing winding-up proceedings against KCM in Zambia.
Vedanta in the application also directed ZCCM to withdraw those proceedings, thereby removing the provisional liquidator.
The Zambian State in June launched court proceedings to have KCM, in which Vedanta holds an 80% interest and State-owned ZCCM 20%, wound up.
As previously reported by Mining Weekly Online, Vedanta said it would take urgent steps to protect its Zambian assets and pursue international arbitration, if necessary, after a Lusaka court last week rejected its request to be included in liquidation proceedings.
At that point, the judge ruled that Vedanta could not participate in the court proceedings brought by ZCCM, but granted Vedanta leave to appeal the ruling, which Vedanta said it would consider.
Vedanta said there was “no just or equitable grounds to wind up KCM” and said it believed the appointment of a provisional liquidator had added to the financial pressure on KCM, as well as putting jobs at risk.
Vedanta stated that it would challenge any attempts to sell its KCM business to a new owner.
Vedanta noted, at the time, that it remained open to engaging with the government, but also reserved the right to seek international arbitration.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation