On Tuesday this week, the households of Solomon Nyirenda, Yvonne Mnisi and Pretty Nkambule had been camped outside the Lily gold mine gate in Mpumalanga for 1 316 days – and can keep there one other 1 316 days if that’s what it takes to get well the our bodies of their family members.
They arrange camp on 30 April 2019 to attract consideration to at least one of the worst mining tragedies in latest SA mining historical past.
It’s an astonishing story of perseverance and fealty to absent relations. When Moneyweb spoke to the relations a yr in the past, none would concede that their family members had died – not till the container is recovered and they’re offered with proof.
They need closure, and people accountable for the tragedy to be held to account.
There is little doubt of their minds that the previous administration at Vantage Goldfields are guilty – although that’s at present the topic of a magisterial inquest.
On 5 February 2016, a key help pillar collapsed at Lily, trapping 76 miners underground.
Included amongst them have been Nyirenda, Mnisi and Nkambule, who disbursed security gear from a container at floor degree.
When the help pillar collapsed, the container and its occupants have been despatched crashing into the bowels of the mine, and stay there to at the present time.
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Business rescue
Following the tragedy, three mining corporations – Vantage Goldfields (Pty) Ltd (VGL), Barbrook and Mimco, which owns the Lily mine – have been positioned below enterprise rescue.
Seven years and several other court docket circumstances later, there’s a glimmer of hope that issues will come to a authorized decision within the first half of 2023, permitting the mining operations to recommence.
For the roughly 700 former mine workers, that couldn’t come too quickly.
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What precipitated the help pillar to break down is the topic of the aforementioned inquest.
Former workers informed Moneyweb that rock engineers had warned of the potential risks of working round and undermining the so-called crown pillar. The mine plan referred to as for the event of an incline shaft away from the crown pillar space, which by no means occurred.
The magisterial inquiry additionally heard new testimony that zama zamas had infiltrated the mine and illegally chipped away on the crown pillar for no matter gold might be recovered. That would have fatally undermined the pillar and contributed to the collapse of the bottom above.
The findings of the inquest will solely be made public in 2023. Another objective of the inquest was to establish whether or not there was any chance that the trapped miners may nonetheless be alive, a slim prospect laid to relaxation by a state medical knowledgeable who declared it sure that the miners have been lifeless.
Legal tussles
Two teams are duelling for management of the mines: Australian group Macquarie Metals, which in 2020 acquired 98% of Vantage’s mother or father firm, Vantage Goldfields Limited; and Arqomanzi, which has the backing of Hong Kong-based Alpha Capital and the Industrial Development Corporation.
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The enterprise rescue practitioners had accepted the Macquarie Metals provide to settle collectors’ claims of R212 million and begin sinking a decline shaft at Lily to retrieve the our bodies of the buried workers.
Vantage CEO Mike McChesney tells Moneyweb the mine would have been out of enterprise rescue and absolutely operational two years in the past, had it not been for what he describes as an opportunistic and hostile bid by Arqomanzi, headed by veteran gold mine supervisor Neil Herrick.
Arqomanzi grew to become the most important creditor in Vantage Goldfields SA (VGSA) when it acquired mortgage claims of R391 million and R189 million in Vantage Goldfields and Barbrook respectively.
For this, it paid simply R15.5 million in a method deemed ‘innovative manoeuvring’ by Acting Judge Roelofse within the Mpumalanga High Court in 2019 when Vantage challenged its standing as a creditor.
Arqomanzi efficiently interdicted the implementation of the enterprise rescue plan in court docket, arguing that it was shut out as the most important creditor.
The Mpumalanga High Court declared that Arqomanzi was a legitimate creditor and the enterprise rescue practitioners (BRPs) could not unilaterally amend a enterprise rescue course of with out creditor approval, particularly the approval of the most important creditor – Arqomanzi.
That determination has been appealed by VGSA on the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Bloemfontein. A choice is predicted early subsequent yr. A second case can be heard on the SCA in March 2023.
Vantage has been footing the invoice for the care of upkeep of the mines, at a price of roughly R1 million a month, says McChesney.
One of the enterprise rescue practitioners, Rob Devereux, tells Moneyweb there may be little the BRPs can do to rescue the mines whereas the authorized course of between Vantage and Arqomanzi is unresolved.
Both sides are disputing the opposite’s proof of funding. “The BRPs received documentation from both parties alleging proof of funding for the respective transactions and the BRPs requested these funds to be paid into a trust account. Both parties rejected this and stated that the BRPs will have to wait for the outcome of the court’s decision,” wrote the BRPs in a memo to collectors in August.
Herrick wrote to the BRPs in June this yr, saying that they had beforehand accepted Arqomanzi’s proof of funding and that “no rational investor would put up R250 million in cash and leave it in a bank account for an indefinite period”.
Claims of forgery
In December 2021, Herrick laid prison prices on the Mbombela Police Station in opposition to Vantage for making an attempt to go off what he says is a solid proof of funding letter from HSBC.
McChesney swatted down that declare: “It’s absurd to make a claim like this. Macquarie Metals has denied this to us, and in any event it was a 60-day facility that has expired. They have the funding and we would have been operational now had it not been for Arqomanzi’s hostile bid.”
Herrick responds that McChesney is making an attempt “to trivialise the significance of the forgery because he knows it is fatal for Vantage”.
“It was used to defraud the businesses and collectors, straight inflicting the final two court docket circumstances which Vantage is now interesting.
“The matter is with law enforcement and must run its course. We have provided the BRPs with evidence beyond any doubt that it is a forgery and creditors need to know who they are dealing with. We think our proposal for rescue is far superior, we have the funds in place to pay creditors and recommence mining operations, and we say it is Vantage that is delaying the process of restarting mining operations.”
Attacks on households of lacking miners
One of the ugliest elements of this story is the assaults on the households holding vigil outside the mine gate.
On one event, an explosive gadget was detonated outside the tents the place relations have been sleeping. The bomb squad was referred to as in, however nothing ever got here of this.
A number of months later, the tents have been set ablaze, and the occupants have been informed to stay inside or be shot in the event that they tried to flee the inferno. The criminals accountable bolted when some younger males ran to rescue the relations inside. Gun pictures have been fired on the encampment and on one other event a gang once more set fireplace to the settlement.
One of the suspects is a well known and beforehand convicted prison from the world, who will seem in court docket in Mpumalanga subsequent week in reference to one of the assaults.
Family members hope this can tease out who’s behind the assaults and why.
Harry Mazibuko, spokesperson for the households and a former Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) official who labored as a security consultant on the mine, says he was supplied R250 000 in a brown envelope to take away the encampment from outside the mine gate.
“The main target [of the attacks] is me for reasons I cannot prove. I was told that there was a campaign to silence me because I helped set up the camp.”
If the aim of the camp is to wage a PR marketing campaign in opposition to the corporate, it may hardly have chosen a extra remoted spot, miles from the closest settlement. Mazibuko says the camp was initially arrange contained in the mine perimeter, however a court docket interdict obtained by Vantage required the camp to find no less than 1 000 metres from the mine.
McChesney tells Moneyweb that accusations over the assaults have been directed on the firm, however he believes inter-community rivalries are the seemingly trigger.
“There are different groupings within the community and there are old and bitter rivalries at play, from what we understand.”
Money can also be behind the mayhem, provides McChesney. Arqomanzi paid R15 000 to every of 567 miners as an preliminary fee of their full claims for wages, after which took cession of their claims in opposition to the mine. The households are additionally receiving help within the kind of primary provides from Arqomanzi and its BEE accomplice, Siyakhula Sonke Empowerment Corporation.
Herrick factors out that Arqomanzi and its BEE accomplice are the one events to offer any humanitarian help to the households because the crown pillar collapse.
Illegal mining
With regards to the declare by relations that zama zamas had infiltrated the mine just lately, the BRPs, writing to collectors in August, mentioned: “There were issues with zama zamas and [the matter] was dealt with by security and police at a ministerial level.”
They added: “There was alleged theft at Lily mine which the BRPs do not believe, as everything was moved from the mine to storage.”
Devereux says the mine is secured by armed guards, and that whereas there was some infiltration by zama zamas, they have been eliminated and safety tightened.
It stays for the SCA to find out the long run of the Lily and Barbrook gold mines, and that call could now be simply months away.
