Africa-Press – Botswana. Government intends to sell the remaining BCL mine assets in April next year, with anticipation that the dewatering of three shafts at the mine would have ceased.
Briefing Parliament on the status of the liquidation of the mine on Friday, the Minister of Minerals and Energy, Mr Lefhoko Moagi explained that as the dewatering of three shafts at the BCL mine was ongoing until March 2024, several strategic assets have not been sold as they were required for the continued dewatering.
“Such assets include some underground equipment, electrics and cabling, vehicles, water pumps and pipes as well as some engineering equipment,” he said.
He said the BCL’s Selebi mines have been sold to the Canadian-owned entity, Premium Nickel for P764 million while a company called PNRB, which was part of the agreement, was obligated to spend P340 million to explore the mineral resources of the Selebi mines.
Mr Moagi further explained that the BCL hospital had been sold to a citizen investor group for a consideration of P30.9 million while the laboratory complex and the Tati laboratory complex had been sold to the Botswana Geological Institute for a combined consideration of about P23.2 million.
Other arrangements he said, were the conditional sale agreement for the disposal of the slag dump and tailings dam, the smelter and concentrator complex and associated infrastructure for a consideration of P200 million as well as the conditional selling of mineral rights at the number three shaft to PNRB at P90 million
On the Tati Mine, Mr Moagi explained that its auction had been delayed until February 2024 due to poor registrations as customers felt it was too close to year-end and therefore, they would not be able to finalise the removal of assets purchased.
He explained that the liquidator for the BCL Group of Companies was effecting the final of the sale processes to attempt to find a buyer of the BCL and Tati mines, but that only the Selebi mines have been sold to an entity with a view to re-opening them in due course.
“Whilst the sale of assets is expected to be complete in the first quarter of 2024, the actual winding up of the BCL Group of Companies is expected to take the balance of 2024,” he said.
Concerning the status of the housing units, Mr Moagi explained that former and current BCL employees have been allowed to stay rent-free in the houses despite the mine having been placed under liquidation in October 2016.
He said at the beginning of the year, government instructed the liquidator to sell the houses to the former and current employees.
“Each of the 1 593 residential houses in the BCL housing portfolio was valued and effectively, the houses are being sold at a cheaper value because the prices are not on a “fair market value” basis. The cumulative forced sale value of the 1 593 houses in the BCL housing portfolio is around P457 million,” he said.
He said following the valuation and surveying exercise, the liquidator issued each employee with an offer letter which included standard terms and conditions for a property sale such as the purchase price and a 90-day option period wherein employees were required to provide proof of funding.
He said initially the instruction was that the liquidator should evict all employees who did not show any intent to buy, but government reneged on the instruction after the realisation that the majority of the employees would be evicted as they failed to meet the set requirements.
“Reneging on the eviction decision was done after taking into consideration the consequences of the evictions against a number of families who have children writing their examinations about the time of planned evictions. Government then made the decision to purchase the remaining houses which had not been sold,” he said.
He said that government was currently negotiating with the liquidator to finalise the transaction.
Giving the background on the liquidation of the mine, Mr Moagi said the BCL mine together with Tati mine was placed into provisional winding in October 2016.
He also explained that the law does not allow companies placed in the hands of a liquidator to be audited, but only reviewed by the Master of the High Court to allow scrutiny by creditors.
He said that procedure therefore ruled out the provision of any audit report before Parliament. Mr Moagi was briefing Parliament at the request of the Member of Parliament for Selebi Phikwe West, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse who wanted to know the cost, duration, audit, sale of assets process, housing and other miscellaneous issues concerning the BCL mine liquidation.
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