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Johannesburg - On Thursday evening Pamodzi Gold again called an eleventh-hour meeting with its creditors to ward off Friday's provisional liquidation of its two remaining mines.
Engineering Labour Hire, the contractor that put the beleaguered gold mining company's best mine, Orkney, into provisional liquidation last week, has now submitted an application for the President Steyn mine in the Free State as well.
At the same time another creditor is applying for the liquidation of Pamodzi's East Rand operations. The amounts claimed in these two applications are however much smaller than those in the case of Orkney.
Engineering Labour Hire, which claimed R22m from Orkney, is demanding R430 000 from the Free State operation, while Fundisa Zonke Training Agency is rumoured to want R3m from the East Rand operations. These applications will be heard on Friday if no settlement is reached by the time of going to press or early on Friday morning.
AngloGold Ashanti, one of Orkney's biggest creditors, has meanwhile agreed to give the already liquidated Orkney a capital injection, but at the same time is conducting a study to determine the risk for its own should Orkney shut down. The mining giant will contribute R10m towards the Orkney staff's arrear wages.
AngloGold's R10m is being made "immediately" available with the aim of paying wages this week, said Joanne Jones, spokesperson for the mining giant. At the same time it will attempt to determine the "technical risk" to its own operations.
The seven Orkney shafts that Pamodzi acquired from Harmony in the 1990s were part of AngloGold's neighbouring mines.
"They are still linked; they were once a single complex," says Jones. She reckons that AngloGold is not aware of any risk, but believes it is still important to investigate the situation.
Pamodzi's Grootvlei mine on the East Rand some time ago curtailed its handling activities to save money, with the result that the mine is slowly becoming flooded while also flooding the lower levels of the neighbouring Aflease Gold's Sub-Nigel mine.
Operations at the President Steyn mine were suspended last week after its water supply was cut off for arrears owing to Sedibeng Water.
- Sake24.com
For more business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.