21st April 2021
The fate of the mothballed BCL mines will be known at the end of August as the potential buyer begins its due diligence.
On Monday, the Chief Registrar of the High Court Michael Motlhabi revealed that a memorandum of understanding with Premium Nickel Resources Corporation has been finalized, paving way for the Canadian company that has partnered with local consortia to revive the mines that were closed and placed under liquidation five years ago.
Early this year in February, the mines’ liquidator Trevor Glaum announced Premium Nickel Resources Corporation has been identified as the preferred bidder, granting the company exclusive access to the BCL and Tati mines to conduct a comprehensive due diligence exercise until August 2021.
1.0 Purpose
The purpose of this note is to update Parliament on the BCL Group liquidation and the leasing arrangement of houses in Selebi-Phikwe by the Government of Botswana for former employees of BCL Limited.
2.0 Update on Liquidation Processes
2.1 BCL Group of Companies, that is BCL Limited (Pty) Ltd (“BCL”), BCL Investments (Pty) Ltd (“BCLI”) and Tati Nickel Mining Company (“Tati”), were placed under provisional liquidation by the High Court of Botswana on 9th October 2016. All mining operations were put into care and maintenance on the 7th October 2016, immediately after the decision to liquidate the Mine was made. The decision to close the Mines was made after BCL’s financial challenges continued and a further P2 billion was requested from Government over and above the Barclays Bank loan advanced in March 2016. Government as a guarantor of the Barclays Bank loan settled it after the company was put into liquidation.
22nd February 2021
More details are starting to emerge about the potential sale of the mothballed BCL mines, with the preferred bidder Premium Nickel Resources Corporation already raising capital and has agreed to shoulder some costs associated with the care and maintenance of the mines for the next six months as it assesses the viability of reopening the closed mines.
Last week the BCL liquidator, Trevor Glaum, announced that the Canadian miner Premium Nickel Resources Corporation has been identified as the preferred bidder, granting them exclusive access to the BCL and Tati mines to conduct a comprehensive due diligence exercise until August 2021.