{"id":17462,"date":"2022-07-15T08:49:53","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T08:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/liqhobong-mine-owes-absa-m900-million"},"modified":"2022-07-15T09:37:17","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T09:37:17","slug":"liqhobong-mine-owes-absa-m900-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/liqhobong-mine-owes-absa-m900-million","title":{"rendered":"Liqhobong mine owes ABSA M900 million"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Liqhobong Diamond Mine\u2019s quarterly update on operations for the quarter ended June 30, released yesterday reveal the mine has over M900 million in outstanding loan with South Africa\u2019s ABSA bank.
\nThis is after the mine made the first capital repayment to ABSA of US$1.9 million (over M26 million), following an 18-month grace period which came to an end on June 30.
\nThe repayment reduced the outstanding loan to US$65.9 million (M926 million), down from US$67.8 million (M953 million). The mine reported a cash balance of US$26.3 million at the end of Quarter Four.
\nLiqhobong mine is partly owned by the United Kingdom-based Firestone Diamonds through a 75 percent shareholding with the Lesotho government owning the rest of the shares.<\/p>\n

Public Eye<\/b>
\ncould not immediately establish whether the mine\u2019s debt is guaranteed by the government but precedence shows that government is not shy to assume the debt obligations of its partners if such partners default.<\/p>\n

This paper reported last year that an over M600 million loan that was provided by the Development Bank of South Africa to partly finance construction of the Queen \u2019Mamohato Memorial Hospital \u201cTsepong\u201d was underwritten by government yet the debt was registered as a private sector contribution.<\/p>\n

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) this year found that Liqhobong mine had not been paying the dividends due to the government since they started mining diamonds in the country.<\/p>\n

The mine\u2019s Chief Financial Officer, Grant Ferriman, explained to the PAC that they secured the mining lease in 2014 and they had been engaged in prospecting mining since then till December 2016.<\/p>\n

Ferriman said within this period, there was no income realised as there were no diamond sales. In its report, the PAC stated: \u201cThe most shocking revelation made by the Chief Accounting Officer was that the company hopes to pay dividends from the year 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201d The mining lease that Firestone Diamonds holds is reportedly valid until June 2021, with options to renew it by two additional periods of 10 years.<\/p>\n

The project primarily involves the development of an open-pit mine to a depth of 393m and construction of a main treatment plant. The mine is considered the world\u2019s third biggest underdeveloped kimberlite resource, based on the contained carats.
\nAs of September 2015, it was estimated to contain probable reserves of 36.04 million tonnes of ore. Lesotho is one of Africa\u2019s significant new diamond producers, hosting Gem Diamonds\u2019 Let\u0161eng Mine, Firestone\u2019s Liqhobong Mine, Namakwa Diamonds\u2019 Kao Mine and Lucapa\u2019s Mothae Mine.
\nThe quarterly update further shows that in the fourth quarter which ended on June 30, a total of 177 521 carats diamonds were sold with the company realising revenue of US$12.7 (M177. 022) million, at an average value of US$71 (M989.654) per carat.
\nThe mine said this is lower than US$16.8 (M243. 192) million registered in the third quarter. Up to 177 521 carats sold in the fourth quarter is also lower than the 211 368 sold in the third quarter.
\n\u201cThe fourth quarter performance was solid from an operational perspective, helping us achieve our guidance range for all items for FY 2019,\u201d Chief Executive Officer, Paul Bosma said.
\nBosma said from a market and pricing perspective, it was a tough financial year, particularly for the smaller, lower value goods and \u201cthese conditions are expected to persist for the rest of 2019 and possibly improve during 2020 when global rough supply is expected to reduce\u201d.
\nHe said as reported previously, \u201cthe company has actively engaged with its debtholders to ensure it can sustain operations through the current downturn and be well positioned to benefit when the global supply-demand dynamics improve\u201d.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Liqhobong Diamond Mine\u2019s quarterly update on operations for the quarter ended June 30, released yesterday reveal the mine has over M900 million in outstanding loan with South Africa\u2019s ABSA bank. This is after the mine made the first capital repayment to ABSA of US$1.9 million (over M26 million), following an 18-month grace […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":17461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8,16],"tags":[233,246,245,470],"class_list":["post-17462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-south-africa"],"yoast_head":"\nLiqhobong mine owes ABSA M900 million - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Liqhobong Diamond Mine\u2019s quarterly update on operations for the quarter ended June 30, released yesterday reveal the min ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/liqhobong-mine-owes-absa-m900-million\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Liqhobong mine owes ABSA M900 million\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Liqhobong Diamond Mine\u2019s quarterly update on operations for the quarter ended June 30, released yesterday reveal the min ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/liqhobong-mine-owes-absa-m900-million\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-15T08:49:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-15T09:37:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_16-62d1351b38645.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"457\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/liqhobong-mine-owes-absa-m900-million#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/liqhobong-mine-owes-absa-m900-million\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Liqhobong mine owes ABSA M900 million\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-15T08:49:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-15T09:37:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/liqhobong-mine-owes-absa-m900-million\"},\"wordCount\":605,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/liqhobong-mine-owes-absa-m900-million#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_16-62d1351b38645.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\",\"South Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/liqhobong-mine-owes-absa-m900-million#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/liqhobong-mine-owes-absa-m900-million\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/liqhobong-mine-owes-absa-m900-million\",\"name\":\"Liqhobong mine owes ABSA M900 million - 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