Gold exploration company Wits Gold was likely to list on the JSE in the middle of April as part of the company’s strategy and to increase the company’s profile, chief executive officer Marc Watchorn said on Wednesday.
In 2004, the company acquired gold resources from AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields and Harmony Gold, with the resources situated in the southern Free State, Potchefstroom and Klerksdorp goldfields.
As part of the deal with the three gold miners, each had a preemptive right over the specific resource they sold to Wits Gold, to claw back a 40% interest in any economic gold resource that was uncovered.
Wits Gold expertise was in exploring Witwatersrand Basin gold geology and any gold discovery would be ultimately handed over to one of the three major gold mining companies to mine, Watchorn said.
The company wouldn’t be raising any funds via April’s listing as it raised $5-million at the end of 2004 via a placement of shares with institutional and private investors.
Wits Gold comprises just short of 800 square kilometres of gold resources in the Witwatersrand Basin.
The company currently estimates that the ground could potentially hold 142-million ounces of gold and 134-million pounds of uranium oxide.
Six of the nine Wits Gold applications for prospecting rights have been granted by the Department of Minerals and Energy and a decision on the
remaining three is imminent.
The company has 40% broad-based empowerment shareholding held by Continental Africa Gold Resources and Tranter Kismet Investments, the largest of which is represented by deputy chairperson Taole Mokoena.
Wits Gold’s chairperson is Adam Fleming, who was Harmony Gold’s chairperson until 2003.
For the year to February 2005, Wits Gold reported a loss of R1,588-million from R896 279 in the year to February 2004. ‒ I-Net Bridge