*JOHN GROBLER REEFTON Mining NL, the junior Australian mining company that got slapped down last week by the Ministry of Mines and Energy for illegally trying to explore for uranium, had their shares suspended on the London Stock Exchange Alternative Investment Market (LSE-AIM) yesterday.
A terse Regulatory Announcement issued by the London Stock Exchange at noon yesterday, said the LSE had suspended all trades in Reefton shares, following more signs of internal trouble at the Perth-based outfit.
"At the request of the company trading on AIM, the under-mentioned securities has been temporarily suspended from 03/08/2005 at 12pm following the resignation of the Company's Nominated Adviser," the notice from the LSE said.
According to the rules of the London Stock Exchange, a Nominated Advisor is essentially the person who advises the investing public on the Alternative Investment Market on that specific company's share price.
The Nominated Advisor's role is essentially a regulatory one, and such a resignation is usually interpreted as a vote of no confidence in the company itself, indicating that he or she cannot any longer act on the company's behalf in good faith.
Reefton's share price, which crashed from its heady heights following their ill-advised announcement of a "new uranium strike" in March, fell to AUD$0,046 yesterday on the Australian Stock Exchange.
The LSE-AIM suspension move was widely considered as an attempt to stem the haemorrhage of value from their company, which has been in a slow decline since The Namibian first challenged the validity of their "uranium strike".
In early June, Reefton also asked for their shares to be suspended from trading for the same reasons, when questions about the veracity of their uranium strike first came to light.
Reefton had announced extraordinarily high radioactivity at their Hakskeen leases, held under their wholly-owned Black Range Mining (Pty) Ltd company.
The share suspension raises doubts over the future of Reefton's Skeleton Coast Mining operations, where they hold four Exclusive Prospecting Licenses (EPLs) for diamonds and heavy mineral sands.
The company had effectively ceased their exploration activities in the area, announcing that it was refurbishing their plant.
Questions had since also been raised over their alleged lack of an Environmental Impact Assessment reports, which the company is supposed to file every year to show that it was not unnecessarily degrading the environment.
Reefton is also legally obliged to rehabilitate the areas where they have been exploring in the acutely sensitive Skeleton Coast Park.
The set-back at the LSE-AIM is expected to impact negatively on Reefton's cash-flows, which could affect their exploration on the Skeleton Coast equally.
It survived largely so far on the proceeds of shares it had sold after every major announcement, but in their last year of operation on the Skeleton Coast, had produced only some 583 carats of diamonds.
