"Was there not an entirely separate court case in the system over the grant of licence on Garatau - a company starting with M.....? Does anyone have proof or the like that this case has been settled or discontinued....?"
You're referring to the case of Myeleti Minerals (Pty) Ltd -v- Minister for Minerals & Energy that was heard in the North Gauteng High Court in 1Q 2010 and related to the granting to Genorah Resources of the exploration rights over the Hoepakrantz farm, the northern most farm of the farms comprising the Tubatse project. The matter was referred to the Supreme Court of Appeals and an appeal was lodged with that court on 4 October last year.
There is no record of the High Court judgment and I wrote to the Registrar of the High Court late last year hoping to obtain a copy of the judgment.
No reply was received which is par for the course when seeking information from South African government departments and other agencies and authorities.
Does Myeleti Minerals represent its own interests or the interests of the registered landowners or the interests of a community with preferent mining rights to the farm?
How does this case brought against the Department of Mineral Resources affect Genorah Resources and Nkwe Platinum, if at all?
A copy of the High Court judgment should reveal whether any "related parties" were listed as applicants to the hearing.
It appears that any "grant" of a prospecting right to Myeleti Minerals had not been registered with the Mining Titles Office before Genorah Resources was formally granted the prospecting rights by the Mining Titles Office and, as such, would be invalid as the prospecting right had not become effective in law.
I was advised by the SCA that "the records" (which I assume is the transcript of the High Court hearing and the case judgment) should have been lodged no later than 1 February this year.
"The SCA has agreed to hear an appeal by Myeleti Minerals against the Pretoria High Court's refusal to set aside the grant of a prospecting right to Genorah. The right was granted to Myeleti but was inexplicably also granted to Genorah in error, court papers in Business Report's possession show.
Genorah's directors include Pandor and Nkuhlu, who is related to Wiseman Nkuhlu, the former adviser to ex-president Thabo Mbeki.
Myeleti applied for a prospecting right over the farm Hoepakrantz 2019 KT in Limpopo on July 28, 2005. The application was approved and granted on July 17, 2008.
The effect of the grant was that the prospecting right could not be granted to anyone else.
Despite this, Genorah applied on February 6, 2006 for a prospecting right over the farm and adjacent properties. The prospecting right was granted.
Although Myeleti cited the minister of mineral resources and other department officials in an application at the Pretoria High Court, it did not file any affidavits.
Myeleti argued that the granting of the right to Genorah was unlawful and unreasonable because once the grant was made, it could not be reversed, withdrawn or refused.
The company contended that the granting of the same right to Genorah could not be validly and legally made.
Myeleti also argued that Ross Rankapole, the department's Limpopo manager, admitted in correspondence with Genorah that the prospecting right ought not to have been granted to Genorah and that it occurred as a result of an error.
However, Acting Judge Hans-Joachim Fabricius found that any "grant" of a prospecting right to Myeleti had not become effective in law.
"Neither was any such right registered with the Mining Titles Office at all."
He also found that Myeleti was too late to go to court."
Flyboy, your third question raises some very interesting points.
Genorah Resources was granted a substantial number of Nkwe Platinum shares (currently held in trust) based on the fact that they were awarded the exploration rights to all of the Tubatse farms.
This is no longer the case, the exploration rights were lost and the rights to these farms have been reawarded by the DMR to the various community groups with Genorah Resources now the listed economic partner.
How this will affect the share allocation currently held in trust on behalf of Genorah Resources will be something well worth taking up with the company.
Stagman
NKP Price at posting:
32.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
