NEWS OUT: Agreement to divest Rappa for $3.4m
Antares Mining and Exploration Corp ANZ Shares issued 18,992,219 Jun 22 close $0.36 Tue 23 Jun 98
Mr. Dennis Gray reports Antares has agreed to divest its 24.75 per cent indirect beneficial interest in South African based Rappa Holdings (Proprietary) Limited for pretax proceeds of approximately R12,600,000 ($3,400,000).
Antares's cash outlay to acquire this investment in 1996 was $1,800,000. Antares's indirect beneficial interest in Rappa is represented by a 49.5 per cent interest in Cangold (Proprietary) Limited, which owns a 50 per cent interest in Rappa. The remaining 50.5 per cent ownership interest in Cangold is held by a subsidiary of the Standard Bank of South Africa which, together with Antares, agreed to divest Cangold's interest in Rappa.
The purchaser of Cangold's interest in Rappa is a currently privately owned South African based waste management company which is expected to be listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in the fall of 1998. The proceeds payable by the waste management company to Cangold and to the other owners of Rappa will be paid on the listing of the waste management company on the JSE later this year.
The pretax proceeds of approximately $3,400,000 to Antares will consist of about $2,100,000 in cash and about $1,300,000 in common shares of the waste management company.
The waste management company which is acquiring Rappa will include among its operations, in addition to Rappa's gold and cobalt recovery activities, ferrous and non-ferrous scrap processing, recycling and trading, solid and liquid waste collection and disposal, chemical and high pressure industrial cleaning, export of ferrous and non-ferrous metals together with associated logistical, harbour and shipping services. Suppliers of raw materials to the waste management company would consist of a virtual cross section of the South African mining, engineering and auto industries.
The waste management industry in South Africa is regarded by Antares as an industry with the potential for superior growth as the country adopts practices closer to those prevailing in more economically advanced countries in the realms of recycling, environmental protection and general waste management.
Employment in the waste management group would approximate 850.
The above agreement is subject to the approval of the boards of directors of Rappa and the waste management company, the purchase by the waste management group of certain additional operating assets and the agreement to the aforementioned transaction by the owners of the remaining 50 per cent of Rappa.
In addition to its 76.5 per cent interest in, and operatorship of, the Indonesian Ojolali silver and gold property, Antares has a 37 per cent interest in the producing Lady Lina gold mine in Zimbabwe; and a joint venture interest with AGC Americas Gold Corp. in the 28,748 hectares Toodoggone properties in north central British Columbia where Antares has operatorship.
Antares is currently evaluating an opportunity to invest up to $2,000,000 in Steppe Gold Resources. |
