Great pick-up Davis! Thanks. Just copied the last part of the...

Great pick-up Davis! Thanks. Just copied the last part of the article, which provides the latest...

'In July, Great Lakes Capital Management, a Canadian private equity firm, through a subsidiary African Thunder Platinum announced it had acquired the South African assets from the Deed Administrator. The consideration to be paid consisted of $1.05 million in cash and the issue of shares equivalent to a 15.5% in African Thunder with the shares distributed to secured creditor Macquarie Bank (13.5%) and unsecured creditors (2%).

Three months later Aberdeen, with a market cap of $17 million, appears on the scene making an initial investment of $4.67 million into African Thunder and committing up to $15 million of which a maximum of $7.5 million would be invested before year-end. To fund the acquisition Aberdeen sold 2.85 million shares in Rio Alto Mining and has completed a non-brokered private placement of 10 million shares at $0.20 per unit with each unit consisting of one common share and a full warrant entitling the holder to acquire a share at a price of $0.30 for a period of five years. This translates into $2 million now and a capital raise of $5 million over the next five years. On this capital raising exercise the company’s CEO and President David Stein made the following comment “…provides Aberdeen with the ability to take advantage of depressed market conditions… to focus on more advanced, less risky projects in mining friendly jurisdictions…”

While all this seems straightforward enough, on Tuesday Meson Capital Partners, whose fund and affiliates own approximately a 9% stake in Aberdeen, objected in a letter sent to Aberdeen and the Toronto Stock Exchange challenging the “pending dilutive private placement”. In his letter Meson Capital President Ryan Morris noted that the units low price of $0.20 is roughly half the $0.398 net asset value per share Aberdeen determined it to be in July.

Using the Black-Scholes methodology Morris valued the warrants at $0.09 reflecting a 55% discount at which the shares were being offered. In addition he claims Meson Capital had proposed, the day after the private placement was announced, to buy the units at $0.20 with each unit consisting of a share and half a warrant.

And the clanger is the fact that there was not adequate disclosure as to who was behind African Thunder, which Meson notes appears to be a related party to the company, a fact not disclosed when the transaction was announced. A google search shows that five of the seven Aberdeen directors are also directors of African Thunder.

So it would appear that Platinum Australia and Smokey Hills are not yet out of the woods. Since Aberdeen is essentially the funder of the Great Lakes acquisition this may not get the go-ahead required.

Clearly it is not only South African minority shareholders who are standing up and embracing their rights'.

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Still more interesting twists to the story. But no sign of a re-listing nor any $$$ to us poor old shareholders. Good thing I have a few years (20+) before my retirement!