MC Mining appoints of Interim CEO and gets loan relief
MC Mining Limited confirms that the recruitment process for a replacement permanent Chief Executive Officer is at an advanced stage and the Company anticipates making a further announcement in due course. The outgoing acting CEO, Ms Brenda Berlin, will step down on 15 February 2021 and Mr Sam Randazzo, a non-executive director of MC Mining will serve as interim CEO while the recruitment process is finalised.
Ms Berlin has worked closely with Mr Randazzo, facilitating an orderly handover and her departure is not expected to impact the finalisation of the funding for the Company’s flagship, fully permitted Makhado hard coking coal project nor the day to day running of the Group’s operating mine, the Uitkomst Colliery.
Mr Randazzo is chairman of the Company’s Audit & Risk Committee and a member of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee and is a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. He has over 25 years’ experience in the mining industry and has completed numerous capital-raisings.
Mr Randazzo has extensive public company exposure as well as operational management experience across a variety of projects in Africa and the rest of the globe. This includes roles as chief executive officer, chief financial officer, chairman and directorship positions of ASX-, TSX- and AIM-listed mineral resource companies.
Commenting today, MC Mining Chairman Bernard Pryor said: “On behalf of the Board I would like to thank Mr Randazzo for agreeing to serve as interim CEO. Sam brings a wealth of mining, commercial and financing expertise that will be valuable to the Company as we complete the Makhado Phase 1 funding. The process to recruit a permanent CEO is at an advanced stage and the board anticipates that this will be completed in the near future.”
Also announced, the Industrial Development Corporation has given MC Mining eight months grace to repay a R160 million loan it took to fund its Makhado hard coking coal project. The repayment was due at the end of November but the coal mining company now has until the end of July to make good on the loan.
With SA producing limited quantities of high-quality metallurgical coal, MC believes the development of Makhado will make it the pre-eminent producer of hard coking coal, which trades at a significant premium to thermal coal and is a key ingredient for making steel.
Phase 1 has a nine-year life-of-mine and is forecast to produce 540,000 tonnes of hard coking coal annually as well as 570,000 tonnes of an export quality thermal coal by-product.
The coal mining company says the extension of the IDC debt facility confirms its support for the Makhado Project.
MC Mining said it would continue discussions with the IDC with the objective of scheduling the repayment of the first drawdown of the loan to align with positive cash flows from the Makhado project, while reaping the second drawdown from the proceeds raised to construct Phase 1.
In the event that they can’t reach agreement on further deferment terms or it doesn’t repay the loan by the due date, it said the financing document allowed for the debt to be converted into equity in the project.
