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Gold/Mining/Energy : RANDGOLD and EXPLORATION (RANGY) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bob Dobbs who wrote (428)	2/14/2000 10:59:00 PM
From: POLARBEAR	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 448

Western Areas gets a shot at Mali's Morila ACQUISITION FINANCING By AMANDA VERMEULEN A SHORT-TERM loan from Western Areas via Barnato Exploration ( Barnex ) to Should Randgold Resources default, Barnex can convert the loan into shares in Morila. Randgold, Western Areas and Barnex are part of the complex web of companies in the Kebble family mining empire. Western Areas, which owns 87% of Barnex, may end up with "25%-plus" of Morila, says Western Areas MD John Brownrigg. According to the London Stock Exchange, where Randgold Resources is listed, this could constitute a Class One transaction, which requires permission from shareholders, as the loan value comprises almost half the market capitalisation of Randgold Resources in London. But Randgold Resources shareholders were only informed about the loan in the company's quarterly bulletin published in January. Shareholders of Western Areas and Barnex first heard of the loan agreement when the December quarterlies were released earlier this month. The boards of all three companies approved the loan. If the loan is converted, Barnex and Western Areas shareholders would be required to vote, as the funding facility would then become an acquisition transaction of some size requiring the permission of shareholders. Randgold Resources finance director David Ashworth said this week the company was confident it would be able to repay the loan, despite delays it had experienced in securing agreement from the Mali government regarding its proposed acquisition of a 20% interest in the mine. He said, however, the conversion into equity would give Western Areas only about 20% of Morila - making it a Class Two transaction, which Ashworth said fell below the LSE threshold requiring shareholder approval. Randgold Resources shareholders, among whom are the Kebble family, face the prospect of losing up to half their expected earnings from Morila in a few months, if Barnex acquires its shareholding and the Mali government finalises its recently announced plan to acquire 20% of Morila, half of which it will receive free. Ashworth said the company had project finance of 85-million signed, and should be able to use that to repay the Western Areas/Barnex facility before the expiry of the loan. Brownrigg said the loan was provided to get Morila off the ground as soon as possible "as we were going to put all the companies together anyway", referring to the now derailed plan to restructure the JCI group of companies under the Western Areas umbrella. Analysts and interested parties claim that the lack of timeous disclosure about the loan may have prejudiced Randgold Resources shareholders and any potential buyer of the Morila project, as a significant portion of the asset base may be carved away in six weeks' time. The loan details were not included in the various JCI restructuring circulars distributed to the shareholders of Western Areas and Barnex in December. Western Areas says signed-off financial information for the period during which the loan was made was not available at the time the circulars were drawn up. Western Areas and its former deputy chairman Brett Kebble were at the centre of the recent debacle which implicated Kebble in various share dealing scandals under investigation by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Securities Regulation Panel and the Financial Services Board. Kebble, who was cleared by the Western Areas board of illegal conduct, has since resigned from the boards of several of the JCI companies. His father, Roger Kebble, escaped the scandal virtually unscathed, receiving only a mild rebuke for his involvement as chairman of Durban Roodepoort Deep in the scandal, despite the company finding that he had contravened good corporate governance.

To: Bob Dobbs who wrote (428)	4/4/2000 10:25:00 AM
From: Bob Dobbs	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 448

by David Mckay of MiningWeb (from Gold Eagle Post) Randgold gains a quarter on possible Morila sale The share price of Randgold & Exploration raced up almost a quarter of its value to R8.15 a share from R6.55 on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Monday. Analysts speculated that the root cause is a bid for Morila, the $85-million west African gold project owned by Randgold Resources, the London-listed junior miner which is, in turn, controlled by Randgold & Exploration. Gold Fields Ltd has been linked with Morila in the past as part of a package which also included 50 per cent of Western Areas. But according to a report by Standard Equities, the market favours Anglogold as the likely suitor. Anglogold's James Duncan said the company did not comment on market speculation. Standard Equities observed that Morila, which is located in former Soviet satellite country Mali, would fit well into Anglogold's portfolio as it would build on synergies with the company's Sadiola mine. The cost structures are similar with Anglogold mining Sadiola at $102 per ounce cash costs versus a projected $133 per ounce operating cost at Morila. In addition, Anglogold already derives some 206 000 attributable ounces from the mine and is in line to mine an annual 1.2-million ounces from the nearby Yatela prospect from mid-2001. Morila is estimated to mill a minimum 200 000 tons of ore a month which is equal to 456 000 ounces of gold a year and giving Anglogold an attributable 1.8-million ounces a year from Mali ? about a fifth of its annual production. Geographical diversity is in line with Anglogold's strategy. Commenting in its recently published annual report, Anglogold said it would seek to spread its risk by diversifying its gold production into other regions. The company is already bidding for half of Ashanti Goldfields' Geita prospect in Tanzania and therefore has no fear of investing in Africa. "Anglogold is hard pressed to substitute its high cost South African production with low cost international surface ounces," Standard Equities says. It adds that South African mines Deelkraal and Savuka (both in the Free State province) are potential candidates for disposal or closure, possibly to Harmony Gold Mining Company. Market watchers also believe other additions are on the horizon for Anglogold including a bid for Australia's Delta Gold and possibly Newcrest. All the Australian gold producers are running at a heavy discount at the moment unlike Anglogold which is rated as trading at a 20 per cent to 25 per cent premium. There is some need, then, for the South African miner to add value. Morila is billed as one of the best African gold projects with a proven and probable resource of 3.3-million ounces and a grade in its first year of over nine grammes a ton. "This is why Morila is so attractive," BoE Securities gold analyst Piet Stoltz says; "It allows payback within the first year," he adds. According to Randgold Resources MD Mark Bristow, Morila is 50 per cent complete and cold commissioning of the mine is expected by the end of June. Full production is scheduled for the year-end. Morila has also begun drawing down the $90-million loan agreement that was concluded with six international banks in the previous quarter. Spare a thought for JCI Gold, however: an offer by Anglogold (or any other group for that matter) will almost certainly end plans to consolidate JCI Gold's remaining gold assets.