GOLIATH Gold, a new gold- focused development company, on Friday indicated that it was no longer interested in acquiring any of Pamodzi Gold ’s mines.
The company, which issued a cautionary announcement at the end of last month , was believed to be in discussions over the acquisition of Pamodzi Gold’s East Rand operations after Aurora Empowerment Systems had been removed as preferred bidders and managers of the East Rand and Orkney operations.
Withdrawing the cautionary, the company said "discussions have been terminated".
While the sticking point was expected to be the price, it is believed that talks did not get that far. The price , however, will be a siz able deterrent to any potential new buyer.
At the time Aurora was named the preferred bidder for the operations, in late 2009, when Pamodzi went into liquidation, the embattled empowerment company was said to be paying R215m for Orkney and R390m for Grootvlei, with plans to inject at least R150m into the mines.
But since Aurora took over , the shafts have been looted and assets have been stripped from the mines. Estimates put the recapitalisation of the mines at close to R500m. This would affect any price offered for the assets.
Goliath Gold was spun out of Gold One late last year. It focuses on deep , long -term assets, while Gold One, which holds a 74% stake in Goliath Gold, is focused on shallower deposits.
Until now, Goliath’s focus has been on exploiting the Megamine assets, east of Johannesburg . I-Net Bridge, Bloomberg
