The Mpumalanga High Court on Wednesday ruled in favour of Vantage Goldfields South Africa, in its dispute with Flaming Silver, a subsidiary of Siyakhula Sonke Empowerment Corporation (SSC), about the transfer of the Lily and Barbook mine assets.

Vantage CEO Mike McChesney said in a statement that Flaming Silver had been ordered to pay the respondents’ costs in the main application. “Vantage had been vindicated by this judgment because the funding to reopen the mines was never secured by Flaming Silver as alleged.”

He said the company would approach the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy with a full update and proposal on the way forward for the mines, which went into business rescue shortly after the Lily mine collapsed in February 2016, killing three mineworkers that were trapped in a container underground.  

Vantage noted it had scheduled a meeting with new investors and the business rescue practitioners, with a view to cement a new sales agreement for the mines, to the benefit of all stakeholders.  

SSC CEO Fred Arendse, meanwhile, said the company would apply for leave to appeal the judgment by Judge AJ Roelofse, as the company “did not lose the case based on the merits of the main application, but rather as a result of the judgment granted in favour of former Flaming Silver director Ferdi Dippenaar’s intervention application”. 

The court in June granted Dippenaar the right to intervene in the matter between the companies, which sought to have the “Fourth Addendum” to the sale of shares agreement declared null and void.

SSC had since early 2018 called for the handing over of the share certificates of the Barbrook and Lily mines by Vantage and claimed that Vantage had been delaying the sale process.

Vantage in March this year cancelled the agreement for the sale of the assets with Flaming Silver, stating that SSC had not complied with funding arrangements to meet business rescue requirements.