Consultancy Siyakhula Sonke Empowerment Corporation’s (SSC’s) subsidiary Flaming Silver on August 26 applied to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) to consider its leave to appeal a High Court judgment in relation to a dispute with gold miner Vantage Goldfields South Africa (VGSA).
This follows after the Mpumalanga High Court dismissed Flaming Silver’s application for leave to appeal the judgment in favour of VGSA, in a dispute over the Lily and Barbook mines, in Mpumalanga.
The court late in July ruled in favour of Vantage, stating that funding to reopen the mines had never been secured by Flaming Silver as alleged.
The mines went into business rescue shortly after the Lily mine collapsed in February 2016, killing three mineworkers who were trapped in a container underground.
SSC had since entered into a partnership with Taung Gold International and made an offer to acquire the mines, but VGSA and the business rescue practitioners for the mines proceeded to progress an offer by Real Win Investments (RWI).
Real Win is a special purpose vehicle formed by Pius Mokgokong, Zandile Mdanda and Lindani Dhlamini.
CEO Mike McChesney of VGSA’s parent company, based in Australia, Vantage Goldfields, confirmed that the company was awaiting the outcome of the SCA matter with interest, while the RWI transaction remained on track.
SSC alleges that VGSA and RWI colluded to collapse VGSA’s earlier transaction with Flaming Silver.