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To: re3 who wrote (49037)	2/14/2000 4:46:00 PM
From: lorne	Respond to of 116779

Lonmin supports Ashanti board. Reuters Story - February 14, 2000 13:31 LONDON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Lonmin Plc said on Monday it supported the board of troubled Ghanaian mining company Ashanti Goldfields Co Ltd and that statements by the government of Ghana last week were not helpful in resolving Ashanti's problems. Ashanti Goldfields Co Ltd on Monday ditched its chief financial officer, Mark Keatley, as the Ghana government convened talks in Accra to seek a new board line-up for the troubled mining company. "In the light of current events, Lonmin believes that the interests of all Ashanti shareholders are better served by concentrating on removing the obstacles preventing the Ashanti Board from resolving the Company's immediate financial difficulties. Accordingly, Lonmin supports the Board in these endeavours," Lonmin said in a statement. Ghana's biggest company, which lost a court battle with dissident shareholders last week, said Keatley would step down after the next annual general meeting on April 26. Ashanti is under mounting pressure after an Accra court ruling last week ordered it to hold an extraordinary shareholders' meeting -- scheduled for March 3 -- to consider demands for board changes and the sale or part-sale of assets. Ashanti -- which was blocked by the government from pursuing its favoured option of merging with Lonmin Plc -- also said the comments from the government, which holds a 20 percent stake and golden share in Ashanti, were regrettable. Both the dissident shareholders and the government say the firm has mismanaged a liquidity crisis caused by a spike up in gold prices last October. "Why did management wait so long to implement solutions which they were advised of last year? Because of delay, Ashanti is currently engaged in very delicate negotations with the members of its banking syndicate," the government said in a statement received in London. Disgruntled investors, led by Adryx Mining and Metals Ltd, had demanded Keatley should go following $570 million of gold hedging losses which brought the firm to the brink of default. Ashanti confirmed the resignation of Ghanaian Finance Minister Richard Kwame Peprah as chairman and said that Phillip Tarsh, its senior independent non-executive director, would take over as acting chair. Ashanti had been due to sign a $100 million loan last Thursday to pay for work on the promising Geita gold project in Tanzania in which it aims to sell a 50 percent stake. But that refinancing plan was thwarted by the court ruling which barred it from any new financial transactions until after the EGM. More >>> hoovershbn.newsalert.com