JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed Eastern Platinum (Eastplats) has missed the March 31 deadline to file its financial statements for the financial year ended December 31, as investigations into transactions entered into by former management continue.
Applying for and receiving a management cease trade order, Eastplats on Wednesday explained that the company was unable to deliver its audit report until the investigation into “certain transactions entered into by former management” was further advanced.
This included the proposed sale of Eastplats’ Barplats Mines, which holds the Crocodile River mine, to China-based precious metals mining services provider Hebei Zhongheng Tianda Platinum (HZT) for $50-million.
The investigation was initiated after the removal of the entire former Eastplats board with new directors in July last year.
In December, HZT hit Eastplats and several of its subsidiaries with a notice of civil claim in the British Columbia Supreme Court over an alleged repudiation and breach of a share purchase agreement entered into between Eastplats’ former management and HZT in June 2016.
Eastplats said it was continuing its review and investigation of its rights and obligations and attending to the satisfaction of its covenants under the agreement, which had not been completed or formally terminated.
Barplats Investments’ shareholders had rejected the sale.
The company expected to file its audited financial statements for the 2016 financial year, and the related management’s discussion and analysis “as soon as practicable”.
The company intends to comply with the provisions of issuing biweekly default status reports while still in default.