Over $20,000,000 is owed to Bibiani creditors since the demise of Central African
Gold. In a letter to creditors, Noble Mineral Resources (“Noble”) promised to begin
making payments of up to 100% of the outstanding invoices of certain Bibiani
creditors upon the acquisition of Central African Gold. In April 2010, Noble
announced the acquisition yet no Bibiani creditors have been paid.
Noble also announced spending of up to $10,000,000 on Plant refurbishment at the
mine with total refurbishment time to be 44 weeks. With more than 24 weeks having
expired, there is no evidence of plant refurbishment activity. According to sources
near the Bibiani mine, 3 of Noble’s Ghanaian representatives have quit and left due
to the fact they have limited funding.
Now that it is time to pay the creditors back and Noble in less that 2 months from
their promise to begin production, Noble’s Alex Taylor resigned as Executive Finance
Director, raising even more rumours amongst the mining community in Ghana that Noble
will be bankrupt like Central African Gold was 2 years ago.
What makes matters worse for Noble is the Chief of Bibiani has requested the mining
license at Bibiani be subject to re-entry and was quoted as saying ” I formally
request that the CAG mining license be subject to re-entry and that a Corporation of
our choice be the company that aggressively restarts mining operations so that the
people of Bibiani benefit from the management of our mineral endowment.”
The prospects for Noble appear weak particularly since many protests by the people
of Bibiani have commenced while Noble continues to put lies out in their press
releases from the Australian Stock Exchange saying all is fine locally here in
Ghana.
With another company meeting the worthiness standards as set out in Ghana’s mining
policy, social licenses will not be granted to Noble by the people of Bibiani.
We wrote to you previously regarding Noble Mineral Resources (Noble) and the
announcement that Noble has controlling interest in Central African Gold. I objected
to Noble entering our land. As previously stated, I was omitted from any approval
process and there is no evidence the people of our District will benefit in any way.
Ghana’s mining policy ensures “that Ghana’s mineral endowment is managed on a
sustainable economic, social and environmental basis and that there is an equitable
sharing of the financial and developmental benefits of mining between any company
and all Ghanaian stakeholders”. There is a lot of confusing information provided in
Noble’s press releases yet we still have many Ghanaians who are unpaid creditors of
Noble (CAG). We offer the following summary of dates and press releases from Noble:
17-12-2009 Letter to Creditors This date is
important because an agreement
with creditors is a critical condition of the
acquisition
04-06-2010 capital raise of $36.8M announced
30-06-2010 Audited Financials show $36M cash
27-07-2010 Noble announces Bibiani Acquisition NOBLE also announces that
“the creditors of
CAGGL being paid as agreed”. Which Creditors
got paid? Not the
Bibiani creditors!
30-09-2010 Noble announces Quarterly results on 29-10-2010 Noble
announced their quarterly
results and they show only $26M in cash –
we
assume $9M went to pay creditors
– no Bibiani creditors were paid.
10-11-2010 Alan Taylor resigns as Executive
Finance Driector
10-11-2010 Noble announces $30M raise $30M for a drilling
program and has nothing to
do with the acquisition of CAG nor the operation
of the mine. Their stock will become more liquid
but no benefit to the people of
Bibiani.
Here is what we know:
· Noble did get “a settlement agreement” with creditors which was a
Condition Precedent to acquisition
· Noble has not paid anything into the local economy or its creditors
· Noble’s “plan” to get back to operations is way behind schedule and in
fact there are no Noble employees at Bibiani
· Noble’s new priority seems to be to raise $30M and drill more holes –
which will help |Nobles stock price but will do nothing for economic
sustainability.
· Noble’s chief financial officer has quit
· Noble is not welcome on the Chiefs land
· The Chief has demanded re-entry.
Nothing in the press releases from Noble indicates their intent for sustainable
economic, social and environmental basis and that there is an equitable sharing of
the financial and developmental benefits of mining.
We have a public company on the Australian Stock Exchange that continues to exploit
the Ghanaian people and our mineral resources in the form of press releases that
serves to increase their stock price and stock liquidity.
We demand re-entry.
NANA KODOM 11
BIBIANIHENE
