MC MINING chairman Bernard Pryor has stepped down from the board a month before a critical extraordinary general meeting (EGM) which called for his resignation, as well as that of the interim CEO, Sam Randazzo.
The thermal and metallurgical coal producer and development firm announced today Khomotso Mosehla, a non-executive director on the MC Mining board, would replace Pryor. Pryor said he would be leaving the company in a much better position than before his appointment.
“I am leaving the board of MC Mining at a hugely positive time for the company,” said Pryor in a statement which cited the recent R86m funding agreement signed agreed with Senosi Group Holdings Proprietary Ltd (SGIH).
Denocept Proprietary, a 6.8% shareholder, may disagree. It called the EGM saying the company had failed to timeously bring its Makhado coal project on line. The project is significantly delayed as MC Mining sought to extend existing credit lines with another shareholder, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and raise project funding with other lenders.
Pryor said earlier this month, however, that Denocept Proprietary was a scorned client having had its offer of funding to MC Mining’s Makhado project turned down in favour of the deal agreed with SGIH.
MC Mining announced earlier this month that it had paid the balance of R35m to the surface rights holders of property critical to the development of Makhado.
Makhado has been scoped to produce one million tons of coal comprising 540,000 tons of hard coking coal and 570,000 tons of thermal coal by-product.
The company announced earlier this year that it had asked the IDC to again extend the repayment date of some R160m as well as the terminal draw-down date for R245m.
Funding for thermal coal projects has all but dried up globally as lenders turn their attention to renewable energy. Makhado needs a total of R575m. MC Mining said in 2020 the IDC “remained supportive”.
However, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia has disrupted Europe’s energy market as Nato-aligned countries turn off oil supplies from Russia. This has led to reopening of supply lines on thermal coal which has, in turn, helped sustain the bull market in coal.
Exxaro Resources CEO, Mxolisi Mgojo, said at the firm’s annual results announcement that his company had the coal to supply fresh European demand.
