INTERNATIONAL COAL NEWS

Gold miner chasing Firestone

RANGE River Gold has launched a scrip bid for South Africa-focused coal player Firestone Energy.

Staff Reporter

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The offer of one Range River share for two Firestone shares is essentially a 1c a share offer, or, as Range River puts it, a 25% premium on 0.8c a share Firestone closed at yesterday.

Range River announced on December 12 it had entered into a conditional heads of agreement to buy Ariona Company SA. That company is party to several agreements to buy up to 800 million Firestone shares from Firestone’s Waterberg Coal project joint venture partner, Sekoko.

Ariona has also agreed to buy another 10% direct interest in the Waterberg JV from Sekoko.

Sekoko holds a 40% stake in the Waterberg JV.

This means Range River may, if the Ariona and Firestone deals go through, end up with a 70% interest in the Waterberg JV.

Waterberg comprises eight titles in the Waterberg coalfield totalling 7979 hectares.

Firestone has a 60% interest in the project.

The Waterberg JV has a memorandum of understanding with South African utility Eskom to provide 10 million tonnes per annum of thermal coal for 30 years.

Firestone announced last month the completion date for the bankable feasibility study of the Waterberg Coal Project had been pushed back to March 31.

This was due to the additional drilling and technical components required to support the BFS, it said.

The BFS is a condition of the Eskom MOU.

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