Project Halo, the South African consortium selected as preferred bidder in the highly contested acquisition of coal mines previously owned by the Gupta family, is denying circulating allegations of favouritism for allegedly being linked to the same family.<\/p>\n
The group, which last year bought three major assets from Tegeta Exploration and Resources<\/a> (Pty) Ltd., a Gupta family-linked mining company, said Tuesday that Optimum Coal Mine, Koornfontein Mine and Optimum Coal Terminal\u00a0had not been operating at full functionality. This, as the mines’ owner was put on business rescue after the main buyer of those operations\u2019 output, state-owned power utility Eskom, refused to renegotiate what it said was an unprofitable coal-supply contract and issued penalties.<\/p>\n But Swiss company\u00a0Charles King SA argued it was seeking to stop business rescue practitioners from selling the three assets while they were awarded to Project Halo. Charles King has noted the Gupta\u2019s holding company had agreed in 2017 to sell it Optimum for 2.97 billion rand ($201 million), though the transaction wasn\u2019t completed.<\/p>\n Eskom is currently at the centre of an official investigation into claims that members of the Gupta family used their friendship with former President Jacob Zuma and his son<\/a> Duduzane to secure business contracts.<\/p>\n Paul Buckley, director of Project Halo, said there was nothing shady in the way it secured the bid to acquire mine and other related assets.<\/p>\n \u201cLet it be stated clearly that we won the bid fair and square, based on our sound business proposal which was assessed by the business rescue practitioners as the best plan presented to them,\u201d\u00a0Buckley\u00a0said in a statement.<\/p>\n He noted that Project Halo declared its expression of interest in the Optimum mine in March 2018, putting down a deposit of R250 million, as per business rescue practitioners procedure, towards the end of 2018.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are focused on going through the final stage of the process with the creditors and then immediately hit the ground running, paying particular attention to the workers,\u201d Buckley said.<\/p>\n \u201cOur sympathies lie with the workers at the mines, who have not been paid for some time. As soon as we take over the mine, and production resumes, we hope to address the workers\u2019 plight.\u201d<\/p>\n Over 2,000 workers at the Optimum and\u00a0Koornfontein\u00a0Collieries\u00a0have not been paid their salaries<\/a> for the past three months, laying the blame on the business rescue practitioners overseeing the operations.<\/p>\n The post Project Halo rejects favouritism claims in Optimum Coal mine buy<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The South African consortium distanced itself from allegations that it is linked to the Gupta family, the previous owner of Optimum coal and other two assets. <\/p>\n The post Project Halo rejects favouritism claims in Optimum Coal mine buy<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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South African consortium has distanced itself from allegations that it is linked to the Gupta family, the previous owner of Optimum coal and other two assets.<\/q><\/p>\n
“Fair and Square”<\/strong><\/h4>\n