MC Mining Limited has appointed two new board directors, Steele West and Muthui Huang, while Douglas Abrahams has stepped down as a non-executive director for the company.
West joins MC Mining as a non-executive director with effect from yesterday. Huang also joins the MC Mining board “following the completion of the first tranche of the subscription agreement” with Kinetic Development Group Limited, which is investing $90 million into the company.
MC Mining said last month that the investment by KDG would not only advance the company’s flagship Makhado steelmaking, hard coking coal project into production, but was also expected to accelerate the group’s broader strategy to develop its various tenements in the Vhembe region of Limpopo Province. This includes the tenements in the Greater Soutpansberg Projects (GSP) and the Vele Aluwani Colliery (Vele).
KDG, an integrated coal-mining and trading group incorporated in the Cayman Islands, operates in Mongolia and Ningxia, China. It subscribed for an initial 13.04% of MC Mining for $12.9 million, while the second subscription for the remaining aggregate $77m was set to be effected after fulfilment or waiver of conditions precedent and applicable to that subscription.
“West brings a wealth of executive leadership experience with his more than 17 years of track record in transaction and project delivery across energy, civil infrastructure and natural resource sectors at a time when the MC Mining group is at a critical turning point in the implementation of its strategy. West’s background will bring invaluable depth to the board, and we look forward to a lengthy relationship with him,” commented MC Mining chairperson Mathews Senosi.
West is currently senior business development manager for ATCO Australia Pty Limited, a Canadian engineering, logistics and energy holding company with C$22 billion in assets.
He has previously held other senior executive positions, including the post of commercial and project development manager for Zenith Energy in Perth, Western Australia.
Wenzhong Ju, chairperson of the board and executive director of KDG, recently stated that he was “enthusiastic about the long-term prospects of MC Mining and its potential as a substantive contributor in the industrial coal space in the region and exporter of high-quality” coal products.
In July, MC Mining said it had secured a $700 000 loan facility from Eagle Canyon International which is linked to the company’s current CEO and managing director, Christine He.
The funding has a maturity date of June 30 next year, with interest for the facility payable monthly at the prevailing Australian Reserve Bank Rate for medium business that currently stands as 6.25% plus a margin of 3%.
“The facility will be utilised for general working capital and is a further positive step in stabilising the company’s liquidity position,” said Senosi, MC Mining interim chairperson at the time.