Who owns River Ranch diamond mine?

River Ranch said in February, 2007, the shareholders were two external companies, Cornerstone and Sedna. "Mr A Aujan, through his nominees, now owns the shares of Cornerstone and Sedna. In 1999, when River Ranch was in voluntary liquidation, the Farquhars approached his representative in Harare and asked if he would buy the shares of Cornerstone and Sedna. "They said that when they acquired the money, they would repay him and, in return he would be given 25% of the shares in each of the two companies and 25% of the shares in Bubye Minerals (Pvt) Ltd. Mr Aujan agreed and he purchased the shares of the two companies." River Ranch said instead of repaying Mr Aujan what he had paid for the shares: "The Farquhars then approached him on seven occasions seeking loans. Their borrowings totalled approximately US$1.5million. As a result of the loans, his stake in the three companies was to be increased to 30%. "By 2004 the Farquhars had not offered to repay Mr Aujan what he had paid for the shares and they had defaulted in the agreements they had entered into with regard to the money they had borrowed from his companies."River Ranch said at that point Aujan realised that the Farquhars were not going to repay him. He then injected about US$2,5 million, arguing the only way he could recover his investment was for the mine to be resuscitated so that diamonds could be mined. He then terminated their management agreement in 2004 and River Ranch resumed occupation of the mine. Twenty percent of the shares in River Ranch have been acquired by Kupikile Resources, the local indigenous investor with Mujuru and Tirivanhu Mudariki as the shareholders.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your article unfortunately lacks balance.Your source has been Aujan and River Ranch.You did not get the farquhars side of the story.For example,the Supreme court is yet to decide who owns the mine.