20 November 2007
BISICHI MINING PLC
Bisichi Mining PLC signs Memorandum of Understanding with Barclays Capital
Commodities Principal Investment Area
to invest in South African coal
Bisichi Mining PLC (‘Bisichi’), the mining company with direct coal mining
operations in South Africa, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a
Memorandum of Understanding with Barclays Capital Commodities Principal
Investment Area (‘Barcap CPIA’) to invest in coal mining in South Africa.
The ‘use it or lose it’ provisions of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources
Development Act of 2004 (MPRDA) mean that Bisichi together with the support of
Barcap CPIA and ABSA, a leading South African bank, will now be well placed to
expand its operations by developing further coal reserves in South Africa.
Bisichi, Barcap CPIA and ABSA Capital will work together to identify such coal
reserves in South Africa, and will acquire and develop these assets within the
Black Economic Empowerment (‘BEE’) framework. Bisichi has owned and operated
the Black Wattle Colliery in Middelburg, Mpumalanga since 1994, with Black
Wattle being one of the first coal mines to achieve BEE status in 1999.
Andrew Heller, Managing Director of Bisichi Mining PLC, said ‘As a result of
teaming up with Barcap CPIA and ABSA Capital in South Africa, we and our BEE
partners are in an excellent position to acquire and develop new coal reserves
which are now becoming available with the implementation of the MPRDA’.
André Pieterse Head of Equity Investments at ABSA said, ‘The chance to work
with Bisichi, Barcap CPIA and the chosen BEE partners in a coal mining
opportunity in South Africa is a great opportunity’.
Mark Brown, head of the Commodities Principal Investment Area, said: ‘We are
very pleased to be working with Bisichi on this initiative, and together with
ABSA, we hope to co-invest in the many opportunities that present themselves to
acquire and develop coal reserves in South Africa’.
END
For further information, please call:
Andrew Heller/Tom Kearney, Bisichi Mining PLC 020 7415 5030
The Commodities Principal Investments Area at Barclays Capital may be contacted
through Simon Eaton, Corporate Communications, Barclays Capital, +44 (0)20 3134
2111, simon.eaton@barcap.com.
ABSA Capital may be contacted through Andre Pieterse, Head of Equity
Investments at ABSA Capital. +27 11 350 8622.
Notes to Editors:
The Commodities Principal Investments Area at Barclays Capital focuses on
making equity investments in upstream oil & gas, upstream mining and power and
renewables. Barclays Capital is the investment banking division of Barclays
Bank PLC.
Absa Capital is the only local investment bank that is part of a global network
– being part of the global Barclays Bank PLC banking group – to provide a full
360 degree, fully local, fully global, service to the South African corporate
and institutional market.
With a distinctive business model, Absa Capital can provide large corporates,
governments, hedge funds, asset managers, institutional clients and others with
solutions to their financing and risk management needs.
END
