TWILIGHT of the Hippo-Gods? WAR, RANGE

Portrait of Hippo-God-Son

[Blockierte Grafik: http://www.miningmx.com/cm_pics/gold_silver/1534-0-0-0_212453.JPG]

Brett Kebble pinned down
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: Sun, 21 Aug 2005

[miningmx.com] -- THE terse cautionary announcement issued late on Friday evening by JCI indicates matters have come to head over the future of JCI CEO Brett Kebble who could step down this week.

Speculation has been growing in the market over the past ten days that Investec Bank is prepared to bail out the financially embattled company but only if Kebble gives up the reins of control. It’s believed he will remain a director of the company and will still have influence but he will no longer be able to call the shots.

Friday’s statement said that; “an agreement in principle had been reached with a financial institution to refinance the company, subject to several suspensive conditions.”

It quoted Kebble as saying “fuller details relating to the agreement would be made known in the course of next week” and also as confirming that; “there would also be a board restructuring.”

Kebble could not be reached. A spokesperson says that he is not available for comment. She adds there will be further JCI meetings this week to deal with the remaining issues before a further statement will be made. She could not be specific on when those meetings will be held.

It is believed that Investec is working closely with Cape Town investment group Allan Gray which holds equity stakes of around 25% in all three of the Kebble group companies – JCI, Western Areas and Randgold & Exploration (Randgold). Key development is that former Afrikander Lease chairman Peter Skeat has held off on putting JCI into liquidation over an amount owed to him of between R70m and R80m.

Skeat has been in a position to do this since the end of July when JCI lost its final legal appeal. Skeat says he’s holding off because an institution – which he declines to name – is about to bail out JCI and will settle his claim in full as part of this.

Putting JCI under would result in further delays for Skeat before he received payment and he may not get the full amount owing. The knock-on effect of liquidating JCI could prejudice the company’s one real asset which is the 50% stake in the South Deep gold mine held through Western Areas.

It is understood the Investec “bail out” consists of a R500m refinancing of JCI as well as providing support for the Western Areas rights issue which JCI is supposed to be underwriting.

In its current condition JCI is clearly in no position to underwrite that offer which is intended to raise R730m. The money is needed to fund Western Areas' commitment to the next phase of expansion at South Deep which is a 50/50 JV with gold heavyweight Placer Dome.

Investec’s financial exposure is to Western Areas where it is believed to have sunk around R1bn into financing the company’s hedge book which is deeply underwater. Given the close linkage between Western Areas and JCI it’s possible Kebble may also have to step down as CEO of Western Areas as well.

Likely date for a major announcement is Wednesday when Western Areas is scheduled to release its June quarterly results after a board meeting on Tuesday. Western Areas is also expected to release details of the proposed rights issue in conjunction with the quarterly results. For that to happen the JCI board will have to reach its decisions on Monday and Tuesday ahead of the Western Areas meetings.

Kebble’s continued role as CEO of Randgold could also be called into question. The problem here relates to the R1,3bn worth of shares in London-listed Randgold Resources which Kebble says Randgold still beneficially owns. Randgold Resources CEO Mark Bristow flatly rejects that contention. Allan Gray chief financial officer Stephen Mildenhall has said previously that Allan Gray would be unhappy if it turned out Kebble had sold those shares.

Randgold should have called a shareholders’ meeting before disposing of such an important asset. Mildenhall declined to say what action Allan Gray might take if it turned out the shares had been sold.

Es ist schwierig einzuschätzen, was genau passieren

wird bis das waidwunde Hippo so daliegt.

[Blockierte Grafik: http://www.mafigeni.co.za/images/hunt2002l/Frank%20Slachman%20Sacramento%20CA%20Hippo.jpg]

Aber WAR dürfte kräftig steigen.

Und JCI einen guten Zerschlagungswert realisieren.

Frei gehandelt wird zur Zeit nur WAR.


Und RANGE in den Americas, aber RANGE ist am allerwenigsten

zu prognostizieren.

Es gibt die Reserven bei WAR 25 Mio Unzen.

WAR hat das Problem mit dem Randkurs wie die

anderen RSA Minen, ein kleineres mit Hedgin.


Das größte Malus ist aber Kebble.

Ohne den dürfte sich der Kurs

verdoppeln, das wären etwa 6 €.


.

WAR gestern +5% und bis jetzt heute +3%,

ein neuer 2. Schacht strapaziert die Finanzen,

eine der tiefsten Minen mit 3.300 m untertage,

ein etwas konfuser journalistischer Artikel, trotzdem lesenswert

Aus BUSINESS DAY

23 August 2005

Profit still down below at tardy South Deep
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Resources Editor

PROFIT from developing gold mine South Deep has become an elusive, tantalising goal for JCI and Western Areas, after 11 years of development and costs of about about R5,6bn.

South Deep is owned by a 50-50 joint venture partnership between Western Areas and Canadian group Placer Dome. JCI owns 38% of Western Areas.

An analyst, who asked not to be named, says new funders for JCI and Western Areas will be taking a negligible capital risk on the project, despite the potential difficulties in mining the orebody, because a large portion of the development costs have already been incurred and there is no doubt that technical difficulties would be overcome.

The project is running more than two years behind schedule due to many delays and hitches, including restructuring and retrenchments, wage strikes, management disputes and infrastructural difficulties.

South Deep, situated about 45km southwest of Johannesburg, has an estimated 55,6-million ounces of gold reserves and an estimated life of about 65 years, according to the latest information from Western Areas.

Western Areas is expected to call on shareholders for about R800m to fund its share of the next phase of the mine.

In 1995 South Deep was projected to cost R2,95bn and to take seven years to develop towards producing 800000 ounces of gold a year by 2003. At the commissioning of its twin shafts complex in February, its CE John Bredenham said the mine was expected to produce about 800000 ounces of gold a year by 2009.

The joint venture partners started to tap into the South Deep orebody last November, when the twin shafts came into operation. Until then, they mined out the old Western Areas mine, which is more than 40 years old — so its production and costs were no guide to what could be expected from the new mine.

At its deepest, the mine will reach more than 3300m below surface and it has an unusually wide reef, which requires special skills and experience because of the technical problems it presents. Its twin shaft complex is the deepest of its kind in the world.

The mine is now moving from the development phase into phase one and two, which will involve building horizontal and vertical shafts and installing equipment.

Western Areas CEO Brett Kebble said earlier this year that the 25-year mine plan, to be released later this year, could include accelerated development to increase production to 320000 tons a month by 2010.

The joint venture partnership between Western Areas and Placer Dome was entered into in March 1999 with great fanfare, as it heralded a substantial foreign investment — R1,34bn plus royalties.

The addition to its total reserves moved Placer Dome into the same league as its main rivals.

But the relationship between the partners has soured over the past two years, with both now stating they may resort to arbitration proceedings to recover money owed.

This year, Placer Dome says it expected to spend $15m on the mine, mainly on underground development and infrastructure.

The other $15m will have to come from Western Areas. Placer Dome says Western Areas has not fully contributed its 50% of cash calls at the mine. But Kebble says the $13m it says it is owed will form part of arbitration proceedings.

Earlier this year, Western Areas said it would claim R500m or more from Placer Dome because of the company’s insistence on certain management appointments when it was in charge of the mine, which delayed commissioning. An independent CEO was appointed a year ago.

For the past five years, there has been speculation financial pressures could force Western Areas to sell its share in South Deep, with Gold Fields the likeliest buyer due to the proximity of its Kloof mine to the South Deep orebody. But Placer Dome has a pre-emptive right to Western Areas’ 50% stake.

Kebble said in November 2001 Placer Dome’s bid had assumed Western Areas was under pressure to sell, but he was not prepared to sell for less than $330m net present value. “They tried to low-ball us.”

7% Depotanteil hat weißer Elefant

Fühl mich komfortabel damit.

Und so sicher wie man mit einer GM-Aktie überhaupt sein kann.

Auch darum;

"weil sie mir zu tief ist"

nicht die Mine, der Kurs wohlgemerkt.

Froneman guns for Kebble
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Posted: Tue, 23 Aug 2005

Aus [miningmx.com] -
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- Aflease Gold and Uranium CEO Neal Froneman today took a leaf out of Randgold Resources CEO Mark Bristow's book and publicly took on Brett Kebble.

Like Bristow before him, Froneman has finally lost patience with Kebble's stalling strategy when it comes to answering key questions concerning the activities of Randgold & Exploration (Randgold) - in particular the whereabouts of R1,3bn worth of shares in Randgold Resources that Randgold is supposed to own.

Kebble maintains Randgold still does own them beneficially. Bristow is adamant Randgold does not and has filed documentation with the SEC to that effect.

Froneman's actions stand in stark contrast to the "behind the scenes" approach being followed by financial institutions Investec Bank and Allan Gray.

These continue to refuse to comment on the state of play regarding Kebble's embattled mining empire which it is understood they are in the process of restructuring and refinancing.

Details may be announced on Wednesday when Western Areas is due to release its June quarterly results as well as details of its proposed rights issue to raise R730m.

Froneman was speaking to financial media at a presentation on the group's merger with gold exploration company Sub Nigel but he readily answered questions raised about Randgold in which Aflease holds a 12% stake.

Aflease got those shares in August last year through a share swap which saw Randgold take a 33% stake in Aflease. Intention was that Aflease would sell the Randgold shares as required to fund development of its Bonanza gold mine.

Kebble got effective control over Aflease working in conjunction with then-ally Trinity Holdings, a Cape Town institution which held 13% of Aflease.

In the event, Aflease did not need to sell the shares but Randgold sold its stake in Aflease down as the company's share price soared on the back of renewed investor interest in uranium. Froneman says that, as far as he can ascertain, Randgold no longer has any shares in Aflease.

Irony of the current situation is that Trinity Holdings is now supporting Aflease in its action against Randgold. Clearly, you can add Trinity CEO Quinton George to the long list of people that Kebble has fallen out with in recent months.

But George's position must be a tricky one. Trinity stood as co-surety with JCI over the R70m- R80m owed by Kabusha Mining to Peter Skeat. George is counting on JCI settling that claim rather than Trinity.
There's no point in half measuresFroneman - who worked for Kebble for a year - says he has spent months trying to get answers out of Kebble on a number of key issues but without success.

Aflease has now requisitioned a Randgold shareholders meeting to gain information on a number of issues. These include; the Randgold holding of shares in Randgold Resources; the Western Areas transaction; the Phikoloso transaction; the 2003 annual financial statements and any other statements which may be released before the shareholders' meeting; related party transactions; interests of directors in contracts; Angolan mining operations and the Orlyfunt transaction.

Froneman also wants to ensure a fair vote by preventing the Randgold board voting on behalf of American Depositary Receipt (ADR) shareholders who do not provide proxies for the resolutions put to the meeting.

Froneman says Aflease is acting to protect its investment. He estimates there's a gap of between R40m and R50m between the current value of Aflease's Randgold stake and what it should be worth.

He adds the subsequent actions to be taken will depend on Randgold's answers to the questions asked. But he makes it clear that, in the event of an unsatisfactory outcome, then Aflease wants an independent management put in place at Randgold and Kebble removed from the board.

Froneman comments; "there's no point in half measures" adding he is worried the concerns of Randgold shareholders may not be addressed by whatever actions are being taken by Investec Bank and Allan Gray.

He believes those institutions have different agendas linked to their respective exposures to the Kebble group and that they are more focussed on developments at JCI and Western Areas than Randgold.

Investec Bank is believed to have a R1bn exposure to the Western Areas hedge book which is deeply underwater. Allan Gray holds 25% stakes across all three Kebble mining companies but the most valuable by far is the stake in Western Areas which holds a 50% stake in the South Deep gold mine.

Hippo, willst Du ewig leben?

aus BUSINESS DAY vom 29-08-05

29 August 2005

Western Areas delays announcement again
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Chief Reporter

FOR the third time, unexpected problems on Friday delayed an announcement expected to confirm that Brett Kebble will resign as CEO of JCI, Western Areas and Randgold & Exploration.

The announcement was expected on Wednesday, when Western Areas was to release its quarterly results and details of a rights offer to raise R700m for the mine.

But this was delayed first due to “technical glitches”, then again on Thursday due to legal to-and-froing between the lawyers, and then again on Friday due to a hold-up at the JSE, which has to approve any announcements.

Late on Friday, Western Areas was able to publish the stripped-out quarterly results, but not the details of the rights offer or any news of a management restructuring.

Reliable sources indicated that Kebble would step aside as CEO of all three companies and quit the boards of Randgold and JCI, but remain a nonexecutive director at JCI.

Western Areas financial director Chris Lamprecht is expected to step in as acting CEO of the company, while Tlotlisa Securities CEO Peter Gray is expected to become CEO of Randgold and JCI.

Western Areas’ quarterly results on Friday showed a R262m loss for the three months to June. This was made up of a R4,3m operating loss, alongside a negative fair value adjustment of R192m and a R56m hedging loss. Because of tax adjustments, the net loss for the quarter was R125m. Despite being deeply in the red, there were some signs of improvement.

First, there was a 25% improvement in gold production at the company’s main asset, South Deep, which meant Western Areas got R61m in revenue from gold, compared with R32m the previous quarter. Also, the weakening of the rand to the dollar meant that Western Areas was able to fetch a gold price of R87,807/kg, compared with R83,345/kg during the quarter to March.

But Western Areas warned that a revised estimate of South Deep’s gold reserves was likely to be 10-million ounces lower than an initial estimate of 55-million ounces due to a “redesign of regional pillars”. These estimates will be fully detailed only at the end of the year.