UK miner finds buyer for Kilimapesa mine

UK firm Goldplat has finally offloaded its goldmine in Narok County.

The company has been seeking a buyer for the Kilimapesa mine for more than a year following years of loss making.

The company had ruled out the possibility of asking its investors to put more money into the Kenyan operation and had instead decided to look for an investor to pump funds in the operation or buy Goldplat’s entire stake.

Goldplat now says it has signed an agreement with Mayflower Capital Investments for the sale of 100 per cent of the share capital of Kilimapesa Gold, which owns the assets and licences of the mining operation in Narok.

The company will sell the mine for Sh162 million but Goldplat will in future also get a royalty of one per cent on gold produced and sold from Kilimapesa.

Goldplat also said it would continue benefiting from the Kilimapesa owing to its shareholding in Mayflower, but did not elaborate further on its stake.

Goldplat disclosed that Mayflower has also signed an agreement with an undisclosed company listed at the London Stock Exchange (LSE), which will be a partner at Kilimapesa.

Mayflower is described as a mining focused corporate investment and management company registered in Australia.

“Mayflower has separately entered into an agreement under which it will assign its rights and obligations under the term sheet to a company listed on the LSE, which will, subject to the appropriate regulatory and shareholder approvals, seek to complete the acquisition and raise a minimum $4 million (Sh432 million) of funding for the development of Kilimapesa's operations,” said Goldplat in a statement.’

Kilimapesa was in May last year put under ‘care and maintenance’, which means minimal activity has been going on at the mine.

According to the latest financials, Kilimapesa made an operating loss of Sh78 million (£554,000). The gold mine cut its losses from Sh231.6 million (£1.64 million) made in the year to June 2019 following its closure last year.

"Mayflower already has a team in place in Kenya and with financing, I believe, has the ability to extract significant value from the tenements under the control of Kilimapesa.

Through its shareholding in Mayflower, Goldplat can continue to benefit from the development of Kilimapesa without being required to provide further finance or management resources,” said Goldplat chief executive Werner Klingenberg.