"A year after BCL closure" is an interesting article in The Patriot by Keitebe Kgosikebatho dated 3rd Oct., 2017.....
Readers will note the mention/reference to Maibele in para 2, where the author refers to the Selebi-Phikwe West member Dithapelo Keropetse who reiterates a point he has made many times to the effect that BCL was closed prematurely or improperly as its mineral resources remain very large, backed up as well by Nkomati ore, Tati, and "new shafts which could be sunk in Dikoloti and Maibele" , especially now prices have risen. (The emphasis this para is my own.)
He (the member) again states, as he has done before, that the Bots government as owner was in fact not injecting new funds into BCL but had actually extracted one Billion Pula from BCL at the time the smelter was being refurbished, prior to the liquidation announcement. Posters too will recall when BCL got $100m from Barclays the govt did guarantee the loan, but did not itself put up any physical money, or so we are told.
With the 6 month extension of the BCL Investments provisional liquidation ending in a couple more months we can hope ( a word I hate to use in this context) that a buyer on good terms is found, preferably perhaps ARM (Mr Motsepe) or even the Russians again, as the total silence from KPMG does not help.
A year after BCL closure
SHARE | Tuesday, 03 October 2017 | By Keitebe Kgosikebatho
It’s almost a year now since the copper nickel rich BCL mine in Selebi-Phikwe was abruptly closed by government, leaving over 5000 workers jobless. As the politics behind the closure unravel, Selebi-Phikwe West MP Dithapelo Keorapetse has fingered government for the mess behind the closure, insisting that Batswana were told untruths prior and after the mine was closed.
40 years more
Among the reasons put forward by government for the closure was that the mine was uneconomic to mine and that the ore grade was low, a reason which Keorapetse refutes on grounds that BCL Reserves and or geological records and documents show that the ore is huge underneath and is of good quality, enough to mined for the next 40 years if prices are good, the ore should be mixed with Nkomati ore, Tati Nickel ore of Phoenix and Selkirk and new shafts which could be sank in Dikoloti and Maibele. (The emphasis on this para is mine.)
“If all these were done with restructuring to make the structure leaner and efficient, the mine would be profitable. The US$4 per pound recovery plan by BCL management presented to Cabinet on 1st October 2016 was a great plan for BCL,” said Keorapetse. Other reasons given by government for BCL closure were that BCL was fatally insolvent as it owed Norilsk P3 billion and that the company may rush to court to liquidate BCL. Self-liquidation was seen as the best option. The above reasons were also dismissed as nonstarters by Keorapetse, who was of the view that government sought to oppose Norilsk claim of P3 billion debts, that it doesn't owe Norilsk as BCL sole shareholder. They claim that they had shown interest in Nkomati mine 50% share owned by Norilsk and that they don't owe as the deal wasn't final. So there's no P3 billion debt, he said. He said contrary to its claim, the last time government pumped any money into BCL was in 2002, 14 years ago and that it was a lie that government was pumping money into the mine all along. “In fact government took over a P1 Billion from BCL in 2014 at the time when the company was preparing to refurbish its smelter and was struggling because of depressed metal prices. This was a reckless move,” said Dithapelo.
Commodity prices rise
And while government also cited commodity prices were down, hence it was becoming increasingly expensive to keep mining for less rewards, 2017 has since seen a rise in metal prices. “China is reducing its steel production by 20 %. This will cause demand to outweigh supply for the first time in over a decade. This is expected to cause a sharp rise in steel prices during 2017 lasting through at least 2020,” according to Global Steel Prices Forecast (2017-2020). “Metal prices are now back up and copper and nickel mines are smiling around the word when we have opted to close the mine,” Keorapetse reiterated. He pointed out that the deception and untruths told by Government does not end with the closure but rather have continued it has since gone back on most of the promises it made to former BCL workers."
For whole article see:
http://www.thepatriot.co.bw/news/item/4759-a-year-after-bcl-closure .html
Regards to all.
(20min delay)
