Wesizwe Platinum’s regulatory issues are continuing with still no resolution over the miner’s status as a “going concern” which was highlighted in October when auditors SNG Grant Thornton declined to verify this.
Wesizwe is also late with the publication of its financial statements for the year to end-December because of a “sophisticated cyber-attack which had a significant impact on the availability of the company’s financial reporting systems.”
The “going concern” issue involves Wesizwe’s huge debt levels which mean its future is dependent on major shareholder China African Jinchuan – which holds 45% of the company – providing more finance.
According to the auditors, Wesizwe’s directors have not been able to provide them with agreements from the shareholder committing funding for the foreseeable future.
The response from Wesizwe’s directors has been that Jinchuan is committed to the company’s future and has always provided the necessary funding in the past. They have no reason to believe it will not do so in future and therefore they believe they are justified in publishing the accounts on a “going concern” basis.
Problem is that Wesizwe has run up debts beyond the current funding cap of $1.5bn agreed with Jinchuan and the Chinese group is taking its time over approving an increase in that level of funding.
According to the latest statement from Wesizwe approval for the increased funding has to come from the China National Development and Reform Committee and that approval process is “on-going.”
Wesizwe said it anticipated completing the application process for the funding by the end of June.
