The board of JSE-listed Miranda Minerals has requested the exchange to suspend trade in its shares as the financially distressed coal exploration and development company has ceased doing business and can no longer meet its financial obligations.

Miranda said last week that the board was considering various options, including business rescue, and that CEO John Wallington had resigned as a director the day before.

Miranda’s bid to buy half of Sentula Mining subsidiary Benicon Coal fell through in early August, when it was announced that a proposed specific issue of shares for cash to Valinger Resources would no longer take place.

Miranda had earlier concluded a share subscrip- tion deal with Isle of Man-based Valinger, involv-ing the raising of R95-million through the sale of 760-million of its shares.

That followed a March deal that saw Miranda, with black-women-owned Mochiba Investments, secure a 60% stake in Nkomati Anthracite Mine from JSE-listed Sentula for R150-million, which prompted Miranda to announce itself as a coal producer rather than an explorer and outline its turnaround position, following two years of restructuring and resolving litigation.

The reported shedding of its overhang of liabilities had it seeking more Nkomati-type acquisition opportunities, which offered low capital investment and early cash flow.

For the six months ended February 28, 2013, Miranda reported that it had narrowed its headline and basic loss per share to 2.95c, from the loss of 5.7c a share posted for the first half of its 2012 financial year, when it reported a headline loss of R11.8-million for the period, an improvement on the R16.5-million loss reported in the first six months of the previous year.

The embattled company had a previous stint of narrowly avoiding the business rescue it may now again face, when it was forced to shed several members of its executive team, complete an operational review of all projects and consolidate various prospecting rights and mining rights into the Sesikhona and Burnside projects.

In 2008, the still diversified Miranda Mineral Holdings raised R20.7-million through a three- times-oversubscribed private placing of 28-million shares as part of its initial thrust aimed at developing coal exploration properties in KwaZulu-Natal.

The company has been through a series of rocky patches, which reached a significant hump on September 12, when Sentula announced that it had terminated the deal with Miranda after discussions had failed to lead to any binding commitments.